


Twin Flames

by Valentine_SaintClaire



Category: Furry (Fandom), Original Work
Genre: Angst, Character Development, Cuddling & Snuggling, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Established Relationship, Falling In Love, Fluff and Humor, Friendship, Furry, Genderswap, Interspecies, Interspecies Relationship(s), M/M, Magic, Major Original Character(s), Multi, Original Character(s), Polyamory, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Worldbuilding, body swapping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:26:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 31,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23689156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valentine_SaintClaire/pseuds/Valentine_SaintClaire
Summary: Lillian Desmond a young Dragonroo will do about anything to get her name out there as a legitimate crystal maker, things take an unexpected turn when she turns on her Boss the only willing to employ her she strike out with her annoying friend named Varl . Meanwhile Thunder a bounty hunter is tasked with taking an illegal arms dealer deep in the non tech sector with his Partner Orion. Thunder is trying his hardest to raise his rank so he can try his hand at taking down his own legendary bounties. But on his journey he runs into his twin flames.The Sectors will shake when the path of Lillian and Thunder collide.
Relationships: Orion/Thunder/Lillian
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter one

Lillian tried to opened her brown wooden drawers it made a clicking noise and didn't open, she had to lift the knobs and pull it upwards. after a few moments of coaxing, it opened. Lillian tossed her clothes out looking for the crystal . She hit the bottom of the drawer still nothing. Breathing hard she flopped on to the edge of her bed, the mattress sunk a bit into the frame. She put her face into the palm of her hands and she wrapped her wings around her body She couldn't believe that she lost the crystal. Rain was still pattering off of the window.

  
Lillian slowly got up and dragged her feet back into the wide hallway she peaked her head into the room where she made her crystals she had already tripled checked. She couldn't make out anything in the room since making crystals only worked in the dark, and smelled a bit like a pig sty. She wrinkled her nose at the stench, she pushed the door, and it creaked all the way open.

  
She stepped in and closed the door behind her, she squinted as her eyes adjusted to the dark, they darted around the room looking for crystal. She carefully navigated the room, the floor creaked under her like a old mans bones. She dodged the rock shaving that littered the floor, the farther she moved into the room the more it smelled like wood shavings, her body instinctively relaxed as she looked on the long wooden table that sat at the back of the room where her tools were laid out, carefully she put most of her tools back on the all to look under them. Still no with no luck, she swung around to head back out the door. She accidentally knocked some of her tools down off of the table with her wings.

  
She clenched and clenched her paws and got on her hands and knees to pick them up. A smile danced across her lips as she reached all the way under the bench, and gingerly picked the clear rock. She waited, grinning from ear to ear for the stone to produce blue energy. And she waited as she felt time ebb on. Her smile quickly faded as she realized that it wasn't going to do anything.

  
"Well this better than nothing." She convinced herself. Light streaked under the door up lifting her mood a bit. Lillian walked back to her room and put on what ever clothes that where sprawled on her floor. She put on her under tunic which covered her pink scale, she let out a long sigh when she finally threaded her wings through her shirt. Being a anthropomorphic dragon had its disadvantages, and clothes were a major problem.  
She grunted as adjusted her wings to get out the door. she stood outside her house that sat above an abundance of trees. The wind had ruffled her tunic around her body Using her kangaroo like paws she jumped up, clearing the top of the trees with ease. She started to flap her wings. She headed in the opposite direction of the sun, which had began to set.

  
As the sun sunk lower in the sky, she saw rickety metal fence that surrounded a portion of the forest, she dove down and landed in crouched position, leaves had littered the ground. A rancid stench assaulted her nose immediately to as she stood up. She hopped over to the fence and stood in front of it she took and deep breath and shook it. The fence groaned in protest, she looked at warily, she took a few steps back away from the fence.The fence slowly rustled opened, revealing an overweight human, he wiped his hands on his work overalls which were once blue. They were holes and dirt covering the overalls.

"Thought you'd never show." Gus said as he wiped his face with the dirty towel.

  
she stared at him with a steely glare , she wanted to flee but she knew he would just find her sooner or later. "Is this what you wanted? She asked put her paw out. She was prayed to every God she knew.

  
He snatched it out of her paw.

  
Her heart felt like it was barely beating, she just wanted this to be over as quickly as possible. The stone was a dud but he wouldn't know that.

  
She looked around his tiny compound, there were a bunch of failed projects, and scraps of what looked like metal laying around on the ground and there were parts everywhere, but a medium sized weapon caught her attention, it had a long rectangular barrel reminding of a feral dragon's face. Her eyes opened wide, she was curious now.

  
"Yeah this is it." Gus said as he slapped her on the back. It snapped her back into the conversation.

  
"Good you can pay me later I have a stew on at home that I don't want to burn." Now she had a reason to leave, she smiled internally.

  
as she was readying for take off home he grabbed her shoulder stopping her in her tracks.  
"But why isn't it glowing like that it usually does?" He turned the shard over.

  
She cringed, his words cut through her like a knife. her body stiffened and she rubbed the sweat off of her palms on to her pants.

  
"I thought I finished my work but I must have forgot to charge it." Lillian voice came out a little louder than a whisper, she tilted her head down covering her face with her hair.

  
"I guess its true what they say around town." He barked at her, he launched back the stone at her, hitting her feet.

  
Lillian huffed letting some smoke through her nose, she started to extend her wings and tensed her legs. "I am not a fake and I did not buy this stone, I busted my ass to make this" She felt sick to her stomach that this rumor was coming back around.

  
"I guess its true what they say around." Lillian muttered back to herself, as paced around the little piece of lawn that had just started to grow again. Oh boy did she think about slamming him into the ground for saying something so half-brained.

  
Gus smirked at her "You are fired, and I can replace you with another dumb dragon." he closed the gap between the two of them.  
She stood up at her full height, Gus from where he was standing barely came up to her breast. She clenched her fist, and narrowed her eyes at Gus who was still standing right in front of her.

  
She struck like a snake and grabbed the front of his shirt sinking her claws into the fabric and easily lifted him up. She brought him to eye level, his eyes quivered around. The mechanic's eyes started to fill with terror.

  
"You pushed me to far this time Gus." Lillian showed him her sharp pointy teeth.

  
"P-put me down right now Lillian." Gus demanded he was shaking like a leaf.

  
"And why should I? So you can use me and my services again I don't think so."  
" I'll give you more time and money." He begged.

  
"This is my last time working for you, and if you care about your life you are going hand over the coins that you owe me," she let her claws dig deeper through the fabric. "Don't think for a second anyone is going to come looking for you because nobody knows you exist." She tossed him to the ground and stood over him, casting a shadow over his face.

  
Sweat began to run down Gus's face. "I'll give you whatever you want just don't kill me." he pleaded as he shakily reached in his pocket and pulled out his coin purse, he put it on the ground to the side of him.

  
"Good boy." She gave him grin showing off her teeth, she removed her paw from his throat. He shot away from her. She slowly bent down and kept eye contact with Gus, his eyes shifted away from hers.

  
she picked up the coin purse, then pushed her hair back to the left side of her face. She walked across the complex and picked up the weapon that she spotted earlier. It was light in her hands, and warm to the touch. "I'll be taking this."

  
She pushed the red button that was on the side of the weapon, and slot had opened up and it looked roughly the size of the shards he had her make. "I guess I have some work to do" she muttered to herself. Lillian launched into the air flying back towards her home.


	2. Chapter 2

"You guys have rank D mission." A small red fox walked through the aisle.

The wolf folded his arms across his chest and his ear twitched in annoyance.

"Something the matter Thunder?"She asked, standing next to him.

Thunder gritted his teeth and slowly turned to her. He was ready to hit the training room so he could get lost in his thoughts, it was the only place that he could hit things and people would think that he was just training.

"No Sasha, just tired of getting stuck on these stupid missions all the time." He sighed as he rested his chin into the fabric of uniform, briefly closing his eyes. 

It was odd to Thunder that Orion never had a problem with the mission that they were given. He looked at the grey cat who was intently focused on Sasha.

Her heels made an annoying clicking noise, Thunder could feel his blood pressure rising with every step she took. Sasha walked in front of the augmented reality projection that showed a junkyard. Thunder gritted his teeth.  _ Too easy _ .

"As I said, Gus is an illegal Weapon dealer, and we need to put an end to it." Sasha walked around the tiny room. 

"And he is located in sector 3," Thunder looked up at the ceiling lights as she spoke. "This sector has had no exposure to advanced technology so you two," Her tail brushed against his shoulder, he knew better than to look. "Will have to go in with the bare minimum, and please don't go looking for a fight." He felt her eyes settle on him. He rolled his eyes in response.

"I would rather stay here anyway." He said softly He rubbed his temples as he felt a headache coming on. He was fine with the mission of course but he felt as if he was being held back which wasn't okay.

"You two are Dismissed and make sure you bring him back alive. Our job is riding on this." Sasha rushed out of the room. She didn't acknowledge what he had said, which made him slam his head into his desk.

"This is your fault your parents are overprotective of you." Thunder jabbed his paw tip into Orion blue and white spotted mane. Recently Thunder felt like he was going to blow up.

"You mean your fault you can never listen to simple instructions, we always end up fighting because of you. Orion snapped back as he removed Thunder's paw out of his mane.

"You know that these missions are meant for omegas." gritted his teeth, he couldn't keep doing these easy missions. It's like they didn't want to challenge him. 

He walked out of the door, and Orion's footsteps echoed behind him, The cold frigid air hit Thunder like a truck, he shivered as he wrapped his arm around himself. The crisp air burned his lungs. Thunder rubbed his paws together before he shoved his paws into the pockets of his uniform.

To distract himself Thunder looked around the outpost,most of it was covered in a layer of snow. He looked to his left at their equipment to run. The place was sitting out in the open and was also covered by snow, he discovered that the energy machines were hot enough to start to melt the snow. The blue streaks of light were visible under the snow.

"Can't believe that these stupid uniforms don't have heaters. Thunder grumbled to himself, every word burned as they escaped his lips. 

"Yeah deep winter can suck and we have to use as little resources as possible until the summer." Orion agreed, as he pulled on the hem of his black uniform. The uniforms were white with a blue trim with one stripe of blue on both sides near the collar of the shirt.

"It's your part..." He dropped what he was about to say.

"No go ahead and say it," It was Orion's turn to be upset at him. "It's my parents' fault that we don't have warm uniforms." Orion frowned at Thunder.

Taken aback Thunder put his head down and continued forward towards their destination. He shook his head at himself for acting like an ass. He didn't want to continue to argue it wasn't good for their relationship.

"I'm sorry I shouldn't have said that." Thunder stopped in front of the double doors. 

"It's okay babe we just have to be gentle with one another." Orion said. 

Orion entered through the doors while Thunder sighed this couldn't get any worse. maybe when this was over they could visit one of those vacation planets, he entered the double doors lost in deep thought, the heat was on, but Thunder could barely feel it. 

"Come on let's put on some warmer clothes. Orion called out ahead of him. 

Thunder teeth chattered from the cold. He made a quick right, conversations bleeding through another pair of double doors but he couldn't make it because the noise was being bounced off of the walls.

_ so this where everyone is hiding _ . Before he could make his way into their private room. He ran into what he thought was a wall but it turned out to be a brown female Jungle Lion. She wore a black and yellow armor that fit bulky around her body.

"I see you're still hanging out with that beta." She grabbed on the collar of her armor, Thunder started to breathe harder and checked to see if Orion was paying attention. "Leave him out of it, I chose this life." Thunder growled at the cat. "Yeah but you are missing out on taking on high targets and better pay, and I heard that you are still taking on omega level bounties." She chuckled. He felt the fur on his back start to raise.

"H-he's my boyfriend, I can't..." Thunder took a shaky breath as he balled his hands into fist. "No I won't leave him." He watched as Carolina's armor shined in the light. He longed to go bounty hunting with the Alphas. He longed to take out a monster with an energy weapon, and study how the pros did it. "I like a challenge, and getting an alpha by starting from the bottom is the best way to do it. He studied her face, she had a long thin scar below her eye.

"whatever dude." she finally sighed and moved out of his way. He inwardly smiled, his lie was perfect. He knew that he could easily be part of the Alphas but he couldn't leave Orion behind, he was the one who showed him this place. He rubbed his hand through his yellow tuft of fur on top of his head. He walked into his and Orion private changing room. The room was white with two sliding doors. dating a prince had its perks, he smiled as he walked into his changing room the door slid shut behind him. Another compartment opened revealing his armor set. He pulled out a black cloak, the end was fringed making it look tattered.

Next he pulled out a shiny silver plate armor top but instead of metal it was made out of a light alloy that could take hits from an energy blaster. They gave him plain brown leather boots, and cotton brown pants and rubbed the material and it felt as if it had padding on the inside. He guessed that they were actually paying attention to what he demanded last year.

Thunder met Orion outside of the changing room, he was dressed in the same outfit. "comfortable, huh?" Orion asked as he sat noisily on the couch in the middle of the room.

"Sorry for being an ass earlier." Thunder reached for his partner's paw. "I can be insensitive and I know how you feel about your parents. It's wrong for me to bring them up." 

Orion nuzzled him under the chin. "It's okay Thundy." Orion whispered into his ear. "No harm no foul."


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thing are heating up in Sector 3

Lillian sighed as she landed outside of an old rickety house the wood was falling off and most of the windows were busted out. "Varl!" She cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted. She was still breathing heavily from her flight, she hated flying over water but it was the quickest route to get to Varl. She had to travel way out of town to trade with anyone for fear of them knowing about the false truth about her.

She waited as she fixed her hair as it whipped around her. From the breeze coming off of the lake. Lillian started to tap her foot, finally he opened his door and it instantly fell off the hinge and fell onto the rocky ground. She just stared at him, he grinned back at her.

"I don't have time for games Varl." She hopped over to him as she shivered as the breeze started to pierce through her cloak. That's when she noticed that he didn't have an article of clothing on save for a tail satchel, and his red scales sparked in the sun. If he wasn't naked she would have admired the beauty of his scales but at the moment she wanted to hurl.  _ Fire drakes. _

"yeah um, I need a medium size piece of carbon . She looked back at the house which seemed to also be getting taken over by nature.

He reached in his tail satchel and pulled out three medium sized carbon shards. "May I ask why you need another one so soon?" Varl asked as he pulled out an eye piece to magnify the shards.

"Personal use." She answered a little too quickly. Then she laughed. "I have a new toy." She mentally kicked herself.

"Ooo I want to see." He looked over her greedily. She slowly took the weapon that was pressed against her back off. She knew she was going to regret it but she had to show someone.

She saw his eyes light up. "Oh my Da. He exclaimed as he got real close to inspect it, he barely reached her midsection.

"what is this ?" He asked as he ran his scaled paw over the weapon. She detached the strap that was connected with the gun and handed it to him to inspect.

"No clue," Lillian's heart raced. "Found it in a forest." With no hesitation she picked up one of the shards in the middle of the pile and examined it.

"I need to leave, I'll catch you later." she readied her wings for takeoff. And for the second time someone grabbed her shoulders stopping her from flying.

"I want to be part of whatever you are doing." Varl said, She almost dropped the carbon. She slowly turned back to him.

Yeah that was kind of the point."  _ Another lie I better not get comfortable doing this.  _ She grabbed his bare shoulders, his scales were hard against her soft paw pads. "This could be dangerous."

"Well danger is my middle name." He smirked at her.

"No it's not, you don't even have a middle name."She mentally faced the terrible joke.

. "Come on we have one more stop to go." She carefully pocketed the shard that she picked out to use.

"What do you mean?" Varl asked. "Do I actually get to see you make an energy

"Maybe if you play your cards right." Lillian hooked the weapon back to her back. "But if you kept asking questions you won't get to see anything." The gravely rocks near the lake kept poking at her feet.

" Why did you pick living near the lake?" Lillian complained as trekked closer to the lake. The little sharp rocks irritated her to no end; she had to keep shaking them out of the bottom of her paw pads, one thing she learned from the months of visiting Varl was that her paw pads weren't meant to walk on rocky surfaces. it had only been for a few hours but she missed the grassy feel of the forest.

"Well I had to get away from the feral dragons." Varl huffed as he hovered above her. "They think so mighty of themselves." Lillian nodded in agreement, they were the reason why she wasn't respected in the dragon market to sell her energy shards or buy anything from them either. She had to hunt and gather her own stuff.

_ Did Carl have the same thing happen to him? did they tarnish his name?  _ This made her curious. "Did you do something to them?" she didn't know how to phrase the question so it came off more accusing than she intended.

"No," Varl quickly rejected. "Even though I looked like them they just treated me like I was some foreign creature. How about you ?" He asked.

"I had a slight disagreement with them, so I moved away," she said. "I'd rather not talk about it." She awkwardly finished. It was still too fresh to talk about what a green drake did to her.

She took to the air and in the direction of the lake.

They raced across the greenish lake, it looked as if a forest was growing beneath the surface of the water. They flew low allowing the spray of the water to cool her down from the warming sun. She felt the muscles in her wings working overtime as the wind pushed against her. She craned her neck and saw Varl lazily drifting behind her, she shook her head and continued beating her wings. It felt good flying with someone again.

The wind finally stopped as she arrived back on land, she slowed the beating of her wings to pace that kept her up in the air. They passed over some stone pillars and her stomach turned over. She took a long sniff of the air. The musk of dragons hit her nose.  _ The pesky dragons are up. _

"Let's head around." Lillian craned her neck to talk to Varl. "We don't wanna get too close to the ferals." She tilted her wings away from their gathering place. Varl sloppily followed her, bumping into her wings, she had to flip over and continue flapping her wings to keep from spiraling out of control. Lillian glared at him.  _ Who taught him how to fly?  _ She led them towards some green rolling hills that were covered by thick green trees. Her house was fast approaching, so she glided and landed, Varl landed with a thud behind her.

"Who taught you how to fly?" Lillian exclaimed, bewildered. "Some of the sloppiest flying I've seen."

"No one." Varl laughed. "I grew up on my own."

"Of course." She touched her forehead with her paw. "Well you should fix that." Her tail tip twitched.

She opened her door and excitement bubbled up in her as she passed through the threshold of the door. She made a beeline toward her crafting room tapping on her energy lanterns, they were floating cubes near the wall. Illuminating the house as they went.

"Wow these are amazing." Varl sounded amazed. "You make these yourself?"

"Yeah." Lillian answered sheepishly, she felt her face scales getting hot. "I have a lot of spare time and I like to make stuff to fill that void."

She made her way into the crafting room. "while you are here I am going to make you useful.." She warned Varl. "Just follow my voice." She continued further into the room.

Lillian padded over to her wooden bench and grabbed a large metal bowl off of the top shelf. She heard Varl bump into the tables as he bumbled behind her.

"Hand me the carbon." Lillian held her hand behind her. She felt the stone being pressed into her hand. "Alright now stand next to me."

"What do you need me to do?" Varl asked, she sensed that he didn't move an inch.

"If you must know I need you to create a fire into the bowl so I can create a crystal shard." She answered while setting the rock shard inside the metal bowl. 

She had done this many times before, she grabbed large gloves, a small lid and a pair of goggles. Lillian slipped on the gloves, they came up to her elbows, the rubbery type substance felt strange against her scales. They were meant to absorb the heat by trapping the kinetic energy like her metal bowl. She lifted the heavy lid and held it over the bowl.

"Fire away." She commanded as she placed the goggles over her eyes rendering her completely blind. She heard him laugh. She realized what she said and snickered.

She saw an explosion of fire. "Keep going I need the metal to burning blue"

The room quickly heated up, she felt the beads of sweat dance on her brow. The room was casted in an orange glow. Every time the flames hit the bowl it was absorbed, turning the bowl blue. "Aright stop!" Lillian shouted as she began moving closer to the bowl. They were suddenly casted back in the dark. She quickly covered the stone with the lid, and as carefully as she could she tapped on the metal bowl, a muffled explosion came from under the lid. Lillian exhaled loudly, she almost forgot to breathe.

"Is it over?" Varl gasped, he sounded drVarled.

"No," Lillian peeled off the lid and set it back on the shelf, she picked up the crystal and sat on the table. She closed her eyes. "I have to place energy in it."

She slowed her breathing and imagined the energy flowing through her body, which she visualized as glowing blue streams traveling throughout her body. She willed the streams to connect and flow into her hand. She gasped as she felt the rest of her body hollow out.

Her ears twitched when she heard Varl gasp. Lillian started to lose her visual of the stream. She released the energy she had gathered in her hand, it wasn't as much as she wanted but it would have to do.

She slowly peeled her eyes open to more blackness. She picked up the crystal, it had a dark blue glow. She sighed in relief as she was used to this taking more tries.

She turned to Varl. "It worked," She smiled, she took the weapon from in between her wings. "Now let's see what this is." She uncovered the port for the crystal.

"Wait," Varl had a shocked expression on his face. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"I didn't bring you so could start doubting me." She spoke through clenched teeth. "Yes I am sure this is what I want to do." She pushed the crystal in, the slip covered itself back up. And a black cylinder came out of it. Lillian dropped it and stepped back away from it.

"Where did you exactly get this from?" Varl asked, reminding her that he was still in the room. "There's no way you just found this."

"I...I got this from what I think was a weapons dealer." She continued to stare at the white weapon. "I was making crystals but never got a chance to see what for."

"What." Carl's voice was full of astonishment. "So you're telling me that you stole this weapon. And whoever you stole this from is going to come here and look it?"

"Nope." Lillian picked the weapon back up, it was warm to the touch. "He tried to get over on me but I put an end to that idea." The more she the more ridiculous her story sounded.

"I mean I guess we can try it out but I'm staying with you until I'm positive this weapons dealer doesn't come back for his weapon." Varl eventually sighed. She was relieved that he didn't put up much of a fight.

They walked to her place to try out her inventions, it was a nice grassy area with a tree littered around. She opened her mouth taking in the scents around her. She turned around pointing the gun. "Hello Terra," She growled. "Why have you graced me with your appearance." The dragon's green scales almost blended in with the grass below him.

"I wanted to see what you were up to." He spoke in a low and lazy voice. "And I see you brought a friend." His snake-like head looked past her and locked onto Varl. The weapon started to shake in her hand. "Leave Terra. I don't want to use this on you." She tightened her grip on her weapon as he padded towards her acting as if he didn't hear her.

"I have a proposition." He sat in front of her wrapping his tail around his paws.

"Why would I..."

"Because you are in possession of an illegal technology in this sector." Terra cut her off before she could even ask. "And you are going to make me a large energy crystal, like I asked the first time. Or do you want me to go to the leaders again."

Lillian Ground teeth together. She walked and pressed the weapon to his forehead, she put her hand on the trigger she was going to erase the drake.

"Lillian stop," Varl sounded panicked. "You do not want to kill him. You are not a murder."

Lillian lowered the gun and exhaled. "Guess we have to turn it over." She was sad over the fact that she wouldn't be able to use it, but she wasn't going to risk getting exiled.

"That too easy Lillian you can keep it just make the crystal for me and I will leave you two alone." Terra said as she looked her dead in the eye.

"I think this conversation is over Terra. I will turn this over to the Elders." Lillian said.

"Fine I'll be around later to make sure you deliver on that promise." Terra said.

He took off. Lillian sighed and sat next to the tree. nothing was going her way and wanted to go back to her island, she didn't even know why she bothered to make a life in a new place.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The search begins.

Thunder sighed as his paw pads touched the grass and watched as the rope disappeared. The ride over was comfortable, they rode in a luxurious jet but it only lasted a few hours. Now they had to complete a mission before they returned to their base.

"Where are we going?" Orion asked as he stretched his body like a cat.

Thunder took a big whiff of the air and picked up faint traces of humans. "This way." Thunder began walking forward, he kept paw on his sword and his eyes looked back forth in wide 

sweeping glances. "It's too quiet for my liking." Thunder grunted as they avoided the pine cones that scattered the ground like mines. Every time wind passed through the trees it sent down water from the leaves, it wasn't enough to drench Thunder but enough to annoy him. "I hate the forest." Thunder growled as he wiped the water off his head with his cape. Though he couldn't really complain because it was warmer than on the base.

"I brought the gear that you asked me too." Orion broke Thunder's train of thought. He paused next to Orion, he was handed a tablet. It was nothing fancy, just an energy level reader, it would let them know if any energy was being used over a certain level. Then he was handed an earpiece in the shape of a six legged bug. He put it behind his canine ear, he winced as it tangled itself on the fur behind his ears. "Jeez these things still hurt." Thunder groaned as he rubbed the fur on the back of his ear. 

"I haven't figured out how to make them stick on fur." Orion muttered. "You have to get over yourself." Orion snickered.

Thunder didn't say anything and continued following the smell.

"If we are fast we will be back in time for the spring festival." Orion broke the silence. 

"Or maybe we don't just enjoy the time with each other with no outside distractions." Thunder shrugged his shoulders. He squatted and looked for some tracks. 

"It'll make my parents happy if we make it back." Orion laughed.

"I don't care." He narrowed his eyes as he looked down and saw some tracks. Thunder bent down to get a better look at the tracks. It was from a dragon but what was odd they came in sets of two. "Hun," Thunder called the boyfriend over. "What do we know about bipedal dragons?" Thunder asked when Orion stood next to him.

"Not much but I know that there is a myth about dragons that came from a different planet." Orion sighed. "What I would do for my gear right now." 

"I know babe." Thunder got up from his squat position. "I know." He dusted his armor off.

The smell of dragon and human got stronger. It made Thunder wrinkle his nose in disgust, some smells didn't belong together. Humans smelled sticky sweet and Dragons smelled earthy. And it was upsetting Thunder's stomach. 

"Let's hurry up, this is wrong." Thunder growled. "This is evil."

They approached a metal gate. Thunder couldn't see over the gate. He walked up to it looking up for any footholds "You didn't bring or climb gear by any chance?" Thunder asked, realizing there was no way of getting over. without flying.

"Nope," Orion sighed. "But this tree looks like it will give you the best angle." Orion walked over to the tree that got near the fence. "Wait a second." Thunder paused before climbing up the tree. "Aren't you Jungle Lions supposed to be good at climbing."

"Yeah, but do you remember my scores during the test. Orion laughed. "I finished behind you." 

"Riiiiight." Thunder groaned as he wrapped his paws around the tree and began to shimmy up the tree by kicking his feet down as he pulled his body up. He had reached the top branch and pulled himself along it carefully not to look down, it shifted downward when he put his weight on it he gingerly inched his way out till he was at the end of the branch. From where he was perched he was sitting above the fence. With no hesitation he jumped out the tree and landed on the balls of his feet. In one fluid motion Thunder pulled out his sword and held it in front of him. He looked for any unnatural blemishes on the ground. 

The ground was barren of any type of vegetation, and there was junk piled a couple of feet high. "This place is a dump." Thunder's tail flicked in irritation, he was disgusted by all of the trash he passed by and littered all over the lot and most of it was metal mounds. 

"I'm not surprised really." Orion's voice came through the earpiece.

Thunder had to bite down to keep from yelling out. He looked around still nothing jumped at him.

He passed by dozens of failed projects. There was a house with dulling colors, the smell of polluted air got stronger the closer he got to the building.

"I'm approaching a house." Thunder updated Orion.

as he approached the building it was worse than he thought the building was falling apart. Most of the windows were broken. The door was badly damaged. There was a button next to the door, He pushed it, the gate slowly rattled open. Orion silently jogged over to him. Thunder threw his paw up and closed it into fist, Orion stopped in his tracks, and Thunder signaled for them to move forward.

Thunder pried the door open with his sword, it cut through the lock and deadbolt with ease. "I guess these aren't made of regular steel" Thunder whispered as he pushed the door open with his shoulder. An unidentifiable stench wafted through the air once they passed the threshold. He turned to Orion and signaled him to check the rooms.

The inside of the house was in a worse state than the outside, the wallpaper was peeling off, there was more unidentifiable metal on the floor and what wasn't covered in junk was stained and falling apart. Thunder walked into what he was guessing was the main bedroom. His pulse increased when he saw a prototype white energy rifle glimmering back at him. He slowly picked it up. It had the same weight as a regular rifle. He pressed the button on the side of the weapon opening the battery port, and a clear crystal came out on to the bed. He placed the rifle down and picked the stone up,it was as smooth as a pebble. _ What is this? Is this some type of power source? Is This natural energy?  _ He spun the crystal around touching the entire surface. He slipped into his pockets. He continued to search the room but to his disappointment he couldn't find anything else.

They met back in the living room. Thunder stabbed his sword into the floor. "Looks like he's gone already." He growled. "We have to call this in."

"At least we found two of the three weapons." Orion cheered, he handed Thunder the log of weapons. over 50 weapons had been shipped off; they were busy.

"Hmm," Thunder looked over the log and Orion was correct meaning that they had the other weapons. "looks like he left in a hurry. I wonder what scared him off." Thunder said.

One thing that Thunder was not looking forward to was contacting the government about this, it always led to a lot of paperwork. "Or we could try to look for some more evidence." Thunder offered. It was a long shot other than trash and other rubbish there wasn't much left to search.

Their prayers had been answered and the tablet went off. Orion quickly retrieved it out of his bag, he almost dropped it. "It looks pretty close to where we are." Excitement oozed from Orion's voice as he manipulated the tablet. 

"Let's go!" Orion sheathed his sword on to his waist, Thunder followed suit, he was bubbling with excitement.  _ This is going to make for a quick job. _ Thunder thought as they walked back 

through the gate. "Time to earn some credits." Thunder jokes.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Worlds are starting to collide

Thunder had to flick sweat out of his fur when they finally stopped running. Having a thick cape on and layers of clothes and armor made him hotter than normal. He was ready to take off his gear.

"How many forests does this sector have?" Thunder said breathlessly as he leaned against the nearest tree, the bark was rough but cool from the tree's shading it ."we ran through at least five."

"Oh stop it," Orion walked past him looking at the tablet and continuing forward. Thunder might be the better climber out of the two but Orion could run the longest.

They had to trek up a hill to get closer to the source of energy. They were practically on top of Gus Thunder and could feel it. He unsheathed his sword, every fiber in his being vibrating. The wind had picked up sending his piece of torn cloth for a cape whipping behind him. 

He didn't see any footsteps, rather dragon paw prints again, he bent down to examine the prints. Confirming what he already knew that they were the same tracks by the junkyard. He took a long and deep inhale, his eyebrows furrowed when he couldn't pick up Gus's scent or a human for that matter. but the sweet nectar smell was lingering. 

His gut told him to continue to follow the dragon's tracks. The trees became mundane after a while. It reminded him of home or where he was raised. He couldn't call where his parents decided to set up camp home. He ground his teeth thinking about what kind of training they put him through.

He saw something purple shimmer in the sunlight that broke his train of thought . His pulse quickened as he felt adrenaline rush through his body. His muscles were screaming for him to run over to the target and get the job done. Thunder ignored the feeling instead he proceeded with caution. 

"I'll stay back." Orion whispered to Thunder. "I know you can handle this, just don't hurt them, just ask if they have seen any humans in this area."

Thunder just nodded his head as focused on controlling his movement. He dodged the branches and anything that could alert the target.

The dragon's back was turned to him as they were wearing a black long sleeve shirt that had two long slits so her massive lavender wings could fit through. Their tail was pink with deep purple stripes coming spilling out of the back of their midnight pants and resting on the ground. It was so familiar to him but he felt he had known the dragon for his whole life.  _ Who was she?  _ She seemed familiar. 

"Who are you?" He softly called out as he sheathed his sword. 

The dragon wheeled around. She towered over Thunder by at least a foot, he took a hesitant step back. Her eyes locked on to his and they just stared at it each. "What do you want? She finally asked Thunder. "Have we met before?" She asked, not sounding sure. Thunder eyes lit up when he saw the energy rifle in her paws, the white weapon matched her ivory scaled fingers. He knew the weapon was in good hands which surprised him, but he needed it back. "I need the weapon back." He stuck his hands waiting for it to be handed over. To his dismay the dragon didn't budge.

"I can't do that." Lillian put the strap back around her sliding the rifle on to her back. "I don't want the government coming after me. I'll be locked up for life, I'm 22 months old and I have a whole life to live. I'm not going to throw away some wolf." She crossed her paws under her breast.

"You don't always have to act like this ." Thunder sighed as he scratched his head. "If you don't hand it over I'm going to have to take it by force." He didn't know her but it felt her stubbornness.

Thunder barely noticed her shake her head at him"Do you really want to take me on shrimp," she took a step toward him. "I think you are going to regret this." Lillian smirked at him.

He bared his teeth, no one except for Orion had beaten him in a fight but that was when he was younger. 

He rushed at her with no plan but his body vibrating with excitement , he threw a sloppy punch. Lillian easily evaded his punch.

Thunder saw that she wanted to crush him, no way he was going to lose the weapon that he needed to turn back over and be done with the situation. He noticed that she kept dodging, never going on the attack like she was waiting for someone. He needed to end this now they continued chasing her through the trees. 

Thunder ran over to her with heavy steps. From the start it was clear that he was just testing her, only pushing hard enough to see what she could do. She easily dodged most of his punches and the ones that did didn't hurt her. He came at her faster, no one he was going to lose to the likes of her. He stepped back in disgust. "Just give up the weapon I don't want to hurt you."

The Dragoness shook her head. He came on again. She kept dodging and running but he continued to land strikes on her. He had her where he wanted her . Thunder stinging blows kept landing. She made a beeline towards a tree. He knew he was the better fighter and it showed. She turned around to face him. He had to end this or she would, he ran towards her, he threw his right paw in a punch. She grabbed his wrist and sent him flying into the tree.

He groaned as he felt like he got hit by a car. He got up and shook the pain away, his ear twitched. She was looking around and she was holding her head. when he hit her he tilted his head to the side.

"Hey," Thunder called out. "We have a fight to finish."

Thunder was angry, His head started to throb. He was overconfident and that is what led him to be thrown in the tree. He closed his eyes and formed a volleyball sized orb in his mind and threw it at Lillian. He opened his eyes in shock as a pale blue orb hit Lillian in the chest and sent her flying into a tree. Pain shot through his body like a hot knife, he couldn't bear the pain and sank to the ground.

Thunder saw Orion run over almost instantaneously, Thunder grabbed for his outstretched paw. "I don't know what's going on. Thunder spoke through gritted teeth as Orion lifted him up. 

"Everything that's happening to her is happening through me with ghost feelings." Every time he punched her as they were fighting he felt the same pain. Maybe they really were connected. 

"I don't know man but that was freaky." Orion helps shake off the twigs and leaves off of his armor. "She kept up with you like she knew what you were going to do."

Thunder turned and looked at him. "I have never met this dragon in my life." He clenched his paw into a fist. "For the last time we just met." 

"Who are you two and what did you do with Lillian." In one fluid motion Thunder pulled out his sword and turned around to where the booming voice came from.

"We are-" Thunder stared at the Red anthropomorphic dragon with black freckles. "It's the AWOL cadet." Thunder snarled. Varl wore short sleeved green and black armor; it looked thick but light and it seamlessly transitioned into midnight black pants. The sight of him disgusted Thunder. It was one thing that He hated the most that thought the years of volunteering for their country were pointless and running was even more cowardly. "So this is where you decided to run to Ain?"

Varl pretended as if he didn't hear him and continued to help Lillian up. "That's okay, I'm still turning you in if you like it or not." Thunder made a move to close the distance between him and the dragon. Forgetting that he was still injured. He stopped mid stride as his head throbbed. 

All he could do was stare at them. His jaw clenched as his teeth ground together. He wasn't dumb enough to attack the dragon while injured and Orion wasn't skilled enough yet to take on Varl by himself. "Okay, can you at least tell us if you have seen a human named Gus before." Thunder relaxed his jaw and sighed.

"Yeah I used to work with him?" Lillian said in a questioning statement. "Did you work for Him?" She was as if she was prepared to fight again.

"No, we are looking for him because he is an illegal arms dealer." Orion spoke before Thunder had a chance to agree with Lillian, he stared at Orion. "We are bounty hunters from the skeleton's keep from sector seven. I am Orion and he is Thunder." Orion flipped, opened his badge, and handed it to Lillian.

Thunder leaned towards Orion's ear. "Why would you tell them who we are." Thunder whispered into his ear. "What if they are working with them. Now we run the risk of them flying to him, then what?" Thunder sounded harsher than he wanted to but Orion had to learn that being upfront wasn't the best course of action.

To Thunder's surprise Lillian spoke "Actually I used to work with him Orion." Lillian handed Orion back his badge. "I didn't work for him for long but I can tell you the direction he was shipping his weapons to, he couldn't stop blabbing how smart he was, and how he could sell in Skyforge with no problem." Thunder's eyes kept darting to Lillian, he probably should apologize for thinking that she was criminal but he knew that it wasn't the correct time. He wanted to ask his own questions but he felt it wasn't right. He just asked Orion the right questions.

"And what exactly did you help him with?" Orion questioned, Thunder sighed in relief; he asked Lillian exactly what he would have asked.

"I make his energy crystals." Lillian answered almost immediately, she opened the power port on the rifle pulling out a blue crystal. She looked directly at Thunder. He wanted to break eye contact but her pale blue eyes were captivating. He felt his body buzzing with energy. 

"What's happening to me?" Thunder had to shut his eyes to try and center himself. The blackness of his eyelids were replaced with a white plane. Lillian was standing there smiling at him, it looked more sinister than she probably wanted it to.

"Welcome to Anelister." Lillian greeted the wide eye Thunder. "This is where we can connect at any time."

"Wha?" Was the only thing Thunder could say as he turned around, whiteness seemed to stretch on forever.

"This is the connection hub for our minds.

"But why?" Thunder asked as he smelled the air, nothing specifically caught his attention.

"We are twin flames." Lillian had created a wooden chair to sit in. "We have the same soul trapped in different bodies-"

"That doesn't explain what you are and how we are connected." Thunder interrupted. He tried to talk again but suddenly he couldn't speak anymore.

"I had to muzzle you or we'd be here forever." Lillian lowered her arms. "As I was saying, I'm a dragon roo we are energy manipulators but sometimes we are too powerful for our bodies and at birth they separate our souls and put them into other bodies who can also store the same amount of energy."

Thunder pawed at the cloth band around his muzzle. He stared her down as she was speaking.

"I guess being around me triggered your abilities ." Lillian's body began to flicker. "Shit, we'll continue this conversation later. Oh and I'll help you find Gus." 

His vision went black.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The search continues

She groaned as she opened her eyes. Ain's violet eyes stared at her as he continued to shake her. The vast whiteness was replaced by the green and brown forest.

"Are you ok?" Varl asked as his brow knitted. "You and Thunder just passed out and-"

"We are fine." Lillian interjected as she got up for the second time today. Thunder didn't say anything but nodded. She was excited it was rare to meet a twin flame. "I am going to help Orion and Thunder with their bounty hunt." She announced to Ain.

  
  


"B...but why?" The look of shock on Ain's face was hilarious to Lillian. "You got into a fight with Thunder and he wants to turn me in." Varl sounded a bit betrayed.

"We all make mistakes, and he has a good reason for turning you in." She shook her head at Ain; she would never look at him the same again, no matter how hard she tried she couldn't wrap her head around Ain being a cadet, an awol cadet. Just when she thought she could trust someone they go out of their way and burn her.  _ Disappointed but not surprised. _

Lillian paced as they made plans on how to get into the city. She stared at Thunder the whole time the yellow fur under his jaw clashed with his black fur on his face. He looked as if he was crafted from stone, her heart beat a little faster as she stared him in the eye, the lightning scar made him seem older than what he was. Thunder turned to her with unblinking eyes and they locked eyes for a bit. Lillian's cheeks warmed as she looked away at Orion and Ain talking.  _ Pull yourself together. _

"Lillian." Thunder called to her, she turned her head slowly. "Have you ever traveled before."

"Yeah, from an island to here." She mentally kicked herself. "My parents wanted me to move from our hometown to somewhere safer." She continued through gritted teeth.

"Good, because where we are going is going to be a far trip hopefully your wings are up to the task." Thunder gave a little half smile.

"You know it." Lillian laughed,  _ God can I be anymore awkward  _ she groaned to herself _. _

_ " _ Oh that reminds me did you ever figure out how to use the energy rifle?" Thunder asked, she almost forgot about the weapon.

"No I ran into a pesky dragon." Lillian balled her fists, Tera ruined her life once and she wasn't going to let it happen again. "But can you teach me?" Lillian asked

"No-" Lillian was about to say something but he cut her off." I'll teach you how to fight with a sword first. Orion hand me your sword."

"But this is my favorite sword ." Orion complained as he hesitantly held out the sheathed sword and belt. "Why can't you give yours up?"

"Do you want to fight me to see who gives up their sword." Thunder snatched the sword out of his paws. Orion started as if he were about to protest yet remained silent.

"I can't-" Lillian began, Thunder interrupting again. "Just accept it."

"O...ok." She shakily took the sword in her paws. It was as heavier than expected in her paws. she pulled the sword out of its sheath. It was phantom silver and sharp. It had a rose shaped arm guard. She took a couple of practice slashes. It whistled through the air with every swing. She began to swing it faster. 

"I'm glad you're a natural." Thunder chuckled. "But can you put it up, so we can be on our way." 

As she secured the sword around her waist she heard two loud whistles ring through the air. Before she could ask what she smelled like horses, her mouth started to salivate. "Lunch?" Lillian asked as her stomach rumbled, reminding her that she hadn't eaten since the morning.

"No. Since you guys have wings we need something that can keep up" Lillian watched as Thunder threw his leg over the black mare. "Don't fly too high." He drove his heel into the side of the horse sending him galloping through the trees, Orion took after him on his tan horse. Lillian leapt into the air opening her purple wings.

They flew over the trees until they finally thinned out and there was only open grassland. She flew slow enough to keep behind Thunder. They passed small streams and meadows. Ain tried to approach her and almost knocked her trying to make small talk to her but she wasn't ready to be friendly with him, she flipped her hair making a wall between her face and him, and she sped up keeping some distance between the two of them. The smell of where she called home was gone and was replaced by an alien smell.

They stopped at a stream to get water and eat before continuing on. The taste and smell of rabbit was still in her nose as she took back to the air.She felt her speed decrease after some acres of flying, she never pushed herself this hard, Lillian's breathing started to Labor. She looked down and it was revealed that Thunder and Orion had stopped. She glided down to them.

"What's the hold up?" She asked as she rested her hands on her hips. "You're tired and we have to rest our horses." Thunder said matter of factly. She opened her mouth to say something but she quickly closed it.  _ How does he know?  _

"I can feel your tiredness." Thunder responded almost like he could read her mind. "Can you read my mind?" She squinted at him.

"No but your facial expression is very telling." It was plain to her that he was trying not to laugh.

As soon as he walked away Thunder called over Ain and Orion. She took her sword out of its sheath, and began to practice using the sword. As she was practicing her strikes she turned her ear towards where Thunder was standing.

"- Are you are sure that you got Alastor and The Children Of The Moon off your trail because I don't need them getting involved with us." Thunder voiced his concerns. Lillian wondered who The Children Of Light were. She decided to slide closer to hear everything that they were saying while keeping her back to them.

"We have to move fast then their sense of smell is incredibly good." Orion sounded almost starstruck. " We can't avoid them and we certainly can't outrun them. We better find Gus as quickly as possible or run into the threat of having to fight them and Gus."

Lillian couldn't help herself but to turn around. "Who are the Children Of light?" She looked at Ain and ignored Thunder's glare. "And why are they chasin you?"

"They are a bounty crew that only work in the dark. They have been chasing me since I got here and only lost me because I blended in with the dragons." Ain said as his head drooped. "No matter where I went no matter how far I flew they always caught up to me."

"Why are they chasing you?" She asked again as she let out a heavy sigh there was so much to him that she didn't know. And he wasn't answering her questions

"They um hate technology as a whole especially in the sectors that are-"

"Sorry to cut into your convo but we need to rest." Thunder interrupted.

She crossed her arms. "Why would we want to do that?" The sun sank lower, turning everything into fiery orange.

"Well we have to "train" tonight." Thunder spoke loud enough to where only she could hear him. She just nodded her head and told Ain good night. 

As she laid down she could never expect anything like this to happen to her. A smile danced on her lips as she drifted off to sleep, meeting her twin flame was a blessing. The sun was still up making her feel warm and fuzzy, the days were long and the nights were short.

She watched as Orion sat next to Thunder who was laying down and shirtless on his blanket. Orion's nimble paws started rummaging through the wolf fur, Lillian watched until her eyes closed.

She opened her eyes to an infinite white plane, she updated her clothing by adding her new side sword on her hip. Thunder joined her not soon after.

"What are the limits to this place?" Thunder wasted no time, his broad sword appeared in his hand."

"I have no clue." Lillian has only visited this place out of pure curiosity she had no real reason to till now. "But from what I've experienced is that you can create whatever you have seen." As an example she changed the landscape to the grasslands that they were currently sleeping on. She even added Orion and Varl.

"Okay let's see what I can do." Thunder gave a toothy smile as he gave a couple swings with his sword, she was very wary of what he was going to do.

Unexpectedly they were transported into a room empty with grey walls; they were made out of a metal that she wasn't familiar with and everything was too straight for her liking. "Thunder where did you bring me?" She asked as she pulled her sword out of her sheath and pressed her back against the wall. A red faceless wolf ran towards her from the edge of the room. The sword in her hand shook as the wolf got closer.

The wolf stuck it's sword out at her, she danced away from the sword. Her heart quickened as she continued to dodge the sword's strikes that seemed to come in rapid flurries. She saw an opening to get away from the wolf. She hopped left and flapped her wings moving her in the opposite direction back towards the middle of the room.

"Bend your knees." Thunder's voice rang out. She started to look for him but as soon as her eyes shifted the wolf started to move towards her again. Lillian lowered her body, as the wolf's sword came slashing towards her she deflected it with her own. She was focused on deflecting most of the wolf's strikes, careful of not leaving her body too open, she felt her muscles tire in the places where she did get cut. She had to end this,the wolf came with slash to her left side. She deflected the strike staggering the red wolf. Lillian rushed and thrusted her sword into their exposed chest making them phase out of existence.

"You're a natural, can't believe you picked up the fundamentals quickly." Thunder marveled as he replaced the red faceless wolf. He stabbed his sword into the ground. "You truly are my twin flame."

Lillian's smile wavered. "Yeah we're definitely twin flames." She tried to put some flavor on her words but it still came out dry.

"Are you okay?" Thunder asked.

"Sorry you just caught me off guard." Lillian willed them not to have an argument. "I thought it was going to take more convincing but it seems that you accept it." She couldn't help how dry her words sounded; he was just going to have to deal with it.

"Ah you have mistaken what I was trying to tell you." A slow smile spread across his face as he spoke. "I believed you, I just wanted to be a hundred percent sure, it's only been a day it's going to take some time getting used to."

She closed her eyes and let all of the tension out of her body. As adrenaline left her body pain flooded in. Without missing a step she closed her eyes and imagined an oak tree and that her energy made up the sap then she let the roots course through her body carrying the energy with it, healing the cuts. 

She opened her eyes when she finished, Thunder mouth was opened. 

"Y...you were glowing." Thunder said more trying to convince himself what he just saw. "Is that the same energy I was using when I struck you with that orb."

"Yeah it's called dragon energy, it's the only form of magic. But it's only used for healing and transferring energy." Thunder's ability was an unheard of use. She wasn't quite sure of what to make it out as.

"You have to create an image of the energy in your body and concentrate to a place in your body or all over." Lillian said.

She watched as Thunder started to glow. The amount of energy he was pulling was huge. she just stared in awe as his stripes began glowing a bright yellow. 

  
  
  



	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thunder and co find their first lead.

Thunder opened his eyes to a mane in his face. He unwrapped his paws from around Orion's waist and his warm mane sighing as he got up. They had to get moving again if they were going to catch Gus. He placed his armor back on. Then he woke everyone up. They had whatever leftover meat from yesterday.

The sun had begun to rise like a lazy dog in the morning when Thunder started to smell fruits and vegetables. Thunder pulled next to Orion silver mare.

"We should reach civilization in a few hours." Thunder explained to Orion as they trekked across another barren clearing it seemed as if they were the only living thing except for the grass. one of Thunder's greatest skills was his sense of smell. "I think we should stop and make a plan. What do you think?

"No, we should keep pushing. We need supplies, if we want to intercept Gus or we will be searching the entire continent looking for him. Orion answered.

"If we don't form a plan then we'll end up getting in each other's way." Thunder sighed, He liked being the leader but if he didn't accept the opinions of others then he wouldn't be respected. "Fine we'll keep pushing but you have to listen to exactly what I say or we'll never catch him." Thunder dug his heel into his horse pushing him past Orion.

They stopped for breakfast before heading further towards the humans. Orion was working on a fire to cook the rest of the deer that they had killed and wrapped up. Thunder looked back at Lillian who was standing a couple of feet away from him. Her sword gleamed weakly in the early morning light. Thunder slowly approached her with his sword.

"You have to be two steps ahead of your enemies." Thunder put his sword above his head. "What would you do in this situation?"

"Stick you with the pointy end?" Lillian asked.

"Try and see what happens." Thunder tried to keep the amusement out of his voice.

Lillian came at him while he had his arms over his head. right when she made a stab for his chest he swung his sword down deflecting her sword toward the ground. She came back at Thunder and he started parrying her blows. just keeping her in front of him, finally he had enough he parried a blow to his left side sending her to his right. As she went past him he kicked Lillian in her backside making her fall.

"If a situation looks too good to be true, it is." He sheathed his sword, placing it on his hip.

"How am I supposed to beat you?" Lillian painted. "You literally deflected every blow that I sent your way and tried to be ahead of you but I couldn't beat your defense.

Thunder's face softened as he heard her try everything he had been teaching her. He couldn't be mad at her, Lillian is one of her first students that actually put his teaching to use instead of brute strength.

"You aren't going to beat me." Thunder answered. "At least not yet, years of mastering the blade versus brute strength, I will win every time but there will come a time when we duel and will be evenly matched. I can feel the power of your strikes and you will become a force to be recon with."

"Is that a complement?" Orion asked as he stood to the side watching. "You better cherish that it may never happen again."

It was around early morning when they pulled into the village. Even though the sun was up there still was a chill in the air.

"What is this place?" Lillian asked as she rubbed her arm trying to keep herself warm dew from the clouds made her scales glisten.

"It looks like we are on the outer parts of a village. Thunder answered as he looked back and forth. It must have been too cold for the humans to come out and work in the fields because the only noise being made was the wind rustling the trees, and the soft crunching of their paws on the sandy floor that was fried tan by the sun.

They continued walking and the farms started to become few and far between. They ran into a few humans but they always ran before Thunder got a chance to talk with them.

" They don't want anything to do with us." Orion said as the umpteenth time that they tried to talk to a human all them trying but with no luck. Looking back at it they should have been aware that this wasn't going to work. Since anthropomorphic animals and humans knew each other they had been at odds, the zoomorphs accepted that they came from feral animals and humans did not believe in the same thing. There had been countless wars between two beings because of this difference of opinion. Thunder ran his finger through the fur on top of his head as they continued walking.

"We need to find out if Gus has been here." Thunder took a tentative sniff of the air. He wasn't familiar with Gus's scent. "I can't pick up anything, it's going to be quite a while before I pick his scent up."

Great, we are going to be stuck in a village  _ with people that won't give a shit about us _ . Thunder thought as they traveled further into the city.

"They entered the village, Thunder could instantly tell it was a pass through village where nobody really stopped but only for booze or supplies, it had a small brick courtyard they led off to other buildings Thunder looked around trying to find somewhere that was open. He saw a tavern with people slowly trickling in. He smelled traces of bear mixed in with humans. Bears had the best smell besides Dragons; they smelled like fresh jam usually blackberry or strawberry.

"We're going in." Thunder pointed to the sign that read The Hibernation, it had a picture of a feral black bear sleeping on it.

"Why here?" Varl asked as Thunder slowly approached the tavern.

"I smell bear." Everyone still stood where they were at. "If anyone is going to help us it's going to be a fellow zoo."

They pushed themselves past the humans who just started at them. Thoughts of insecurity swam through Thunder's head making him hesitate as humans looked on with disgust. He realized these emotions weren't coming from him.

_ Lillian has to learn not to feel so openly _ he thought. As he continued to push through the crowd blocking out her thoughts.

"Looks like your little animal friends came looking for you." Someone from the crowd shouted at the bartender.

"I don't know any Zoo's." The bear with a thick accent responded. Thunder finally made it past the crowd that blocked the front of the bar. The black bear stared at them.

"Is there any way we could speak in private?" Thunder asked as the packed tavern increased in size and loudness. "Well of course sugar." The bear voice was as sweet as honey. Thunder smelled a tiny bit of fear come from her.

. Thunder followed Her lead to the back of the tavern, he took in every detail so just in case he had to break in he could. Tammi's office space was only big enough to fit two people and even that was tight. The office space was littered with paper and books.

"Sorry for the mess... taxes are due and I want to make sure they are done correctly." She gave him a smile that instantly disappeared as she shuffled through the papers on her desk. "The name is Tammi."

"The name is Thunder, I just have a couple of questions." He said 

"I know taxes are due now but if you give me some more time then I'll get them to you. Tammi knocked a couple of papers off of the desk.

"We aren't with the tax collectors, we were just stopping at the nearest town." Thunder bent down and picked up the papers for her. He knew that taxes this way were rough but he wasn't expecting this.

"That's good to hear." She breathed a sigh of relief and stopped scrummaging. "People don't come around with swords just thought that they were getting aggressive. So what can help you with?" The natural light casted a shadow over Tammi's face.

"We are trying to find a man who goes by the name Gus. He's about six foot and heavy set white guy." Thunder continued, he watched as her facial expression it seemed early on she hadn't seen him. "He probably has a lot of bags and we endowed with money ."

She adjusted her blouse. It was a tiny movement but he knew that she knew something.

"No, I've never seen 'em." She continued to smooth her blouse down.

"Thanks anyways." Thunder walked out of the office. Now all he had to do was gain access to her office and see what was really going on.

Back in the common room Thunder saw Lillian talking to a human she had brown skin and curly black hair and was dressed in deer skinned leggings and top. Lillian made eye contact with Thunder and motioned him over.

"Hey what's up?" Thunder had sat at the end of the bench.

"Well me and Cassandra were talking and Gus had came up-"

"And I see him regularly travel through the mountain range." Cassandra cut Lillian off. "That where my clan stays and it's quick access to New Haven so if you want to catch him then that where you'll probably find him." She pointed her fork at Thunder. "Though he's probably already there he has about a day or two head start."

"Why do you want to help us?" Thunder asked there were not too many humans that wanted to talk to zoos let alone help them.

"Because that's a vile man with a lot of money." Cassandra sighed. "He gets away with everything. All he has to do is pay a fine. But if it were me I would be spending the night in the Brig."

They talked till the afternoon. In that time Thunder learned the distinctive smell of clan people and he could tell a lot of humans were of mixed blood they wouldn't understand how close they were to each other.

They all had decided to split up since the group was uneven with the addition of Cassandra, Thunder decided to strike off on his own and had to figure a way back into Tammi's office.

"Which way is the restroom?" Thunder asked a random woman who was sitting at the bar. To his pleasure she pointed around the corner towards Tammi's office. He took one last peek at Tammi. She was busy sweet talking another patron into buying another drink.

He looked around making sure no one was coming, he quickly took his sword out and stuck it into the door cutting through the lock. He hated doing this but he had to catch Gus, if they didn't he wouldn't be employed anymore.

He looked on the desk. It was so old parts of the desk had rotted wood. He carefully moved papers out of the way, careful not to sink his claws through the paper. As he was reaching for a paper that had Gus's name on it. His heart began to race and he started to panic. He looked around for the threat but there was none. "Lillian" he thought as he ran out the door.

Outside it was bright he shielded his face from the sun. He wasn't quite sure which way they went; their smells were equally as fresh.  _ Where are you _ ? Thunder thought.

_ Near the stables hurry we are outnumbered.  _ Lillian's mind brushed against his. Thunder gasped at the contact it wasn't like anything he had ever experienced.

_ Did you just talk to me in my head? Thunder _ thought at Lillian as he ran towards the stables.  _ We have to talk.  _ Thunder didn't know how to feel it was hard accepting that someone could talk to him at any time. He dodged between, vaulted over carts and knocked over fruit stands trying to make it to Lillian.

Finally he saw Cassandra behind Lillian and five hairless apes surround them. They looked like brothers and all just as ugly, their clothes were covered in soot and they reeked of alcohol.

Lillian's weapon was still sheathed, probably not trusting herself yet.

"Hey," Thunder shouted. "It's not nice to pick on pretty women." Three of them turned to him, none of them were armed with more than a long piece of wood.

"We just wanted to know where they were leaving to all of a sudden." The one in the middle snickered.

_ I'll take the three you focus on the other two.  _ Thunder thought at Lillian.

"This isn't your concern dog" is the shorter one on the right side.

"They're with me." Thunder growled. "And I'm a wolf, not one of your enslaved pets."

"We can change that." The middle brother and the largest out of the three said. "Right boys?" They all shouted in agreement.

They ran at Thunder swinging their weapons, he back away trying to draw them away from the ladies. Their strikes were slow and Thunder had no problem dodging the strikes of the younger brothers. He pushed them into each other, taking them out of the fight. He mistakenly took his eyes off the oldest one to see how Lillian was doing, earning him a punch to the gut from the larger brother. He caught himself from doubling over, he returned the punch but it got absorbed into the brother's fat. He looked up and was greeted with a crooked smile with broken teeth.

"Tha don't work on me." And he let out a disgusting laugh.

_ Great I work out for years and still try to avoid getting hit and this guy just eats and absorbs punches _ . Thunder thought as he backed out the heavy brother's way.

_ Need any help?  _ Lillian's mind glossed across his. He shook his head as the human rushed at him. Just before beefy human could tackle him, Thunder struck his foot paw out hitting the hairless ape in his side he felt the fat squish in and connect with the kidney making him fall before he could reach Thunder. He pushed him on top of the other two pinning them down.

"Well I guess we should leave." Thunder said as he sent all five brothers running away. "I'm curious though why did you call me? I know you can handle your own."

"They wanted to take Cassandra." Lillian helped him put a saddle on his horse. Something about clan members go for a pretty penny. I wasn't going to risk losing her." Lilian said.

Thunder was glad his twin flame looked out for others.

"What about our-" Thunder leaned over his horse. "Telepathy, we can communicate with others. The only other people I know that can do that is superheroes."

"Superwhat? Lillian's face scrunched up. "It's a common trait between twin flames like with the ability to know how the other is feeling. Or switching bodies and being able to absorb anything that produces energy."

"S-switch bodies?" Thunder asked as he hopped on his horse. "That would be interesting." Thunder finished reining in his emotions.

"Yah it would huh?" Lillian snickered. "Wonder what it would feel like being a pipsqueak."

Thunder stared at her, and crossed his arms across his chest. "Come on we have to leave before everyone finds out what happened here no doubt that they are going to lie. Thunder said. "Come on Cassandra."

Cassandra rode Orion's horse to the other side of town. They found Orion and Varl still shopping. _Found them._ Thunder thought to Lillian who was waiting outside of town for them.

"We got everything." Orion said as he came over and gave Thunder a hug. "Even found some stuff that I can tinker with."

"That's good to hear babe. Thunder divided the dry meat, cheese and bread between the two horses. "Oh we need to leave like now."

"We need to do what?" Varl exclaimed.

"Yeah we got into an altercation with some drunkards and it's a good idea if we leave now."

"What happened?" Varl asked.

Thunder sighed they didn't have time to explain all what happened. "I'll explain when we stop for lunch right now we ride." With that Thunder started riding toward the mountain range.

  
  



	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pit stop

The air was thinning and Lillian could feel herself spacing out. She tried to concentrate on the green mountain range, instead her thoughts swam thinking about everything but flying she felt her body sink, she slapped her face in an attempt to wake herself up. Come pull yourself together. She felt her mind brush Thunder. Great now he would be worried about her.

What's the matter Lillian? Their minds made contact again and held, she guessed that he was inspecting. She closed her mind from the contact and put up a brick wall. Forgetting that she was supposed to be concentrating on flying she felt herself falling and then she looked down and saw the white and green ground get closer then her mind went black.

She opened her eyes to a large red room that was covered in silver curtains. She realized she had passed out mid flight in response her body ached. She used the last bit of energy to heal herself, she instantly felt cold. Lillian shivered as she pulled the covers closer to her body.

"My Queen are you Well?" A croaky voice asked from the left side of her.

She whipped her head trying to find out where the voice was coming from. She made eye contact with what she was guessing was a middle aged human with brown leathery skin, his neck down was covered in what looked like thick clothes.

"What Queen?" Lillian spoke barley in a whisper. She looked around the room and it looked empty besides the two of them.

"I'm talking about you my Queen we prayed and prayed and you have finally answered our prayers." The man spoke again. "My name is Thermin.

"I don't understand?" Lillian was still confused but Lillian guessed that was what happens when you pass out.

"Just come with me and I'll show you."

As she got up something felt off like she was missing something. She looked down and she realized she was wearing a silver dress. Her eyes darted around the room looking for her old clothes.

"Where are my old clothes." She hissed

Though she couldn't lie and say it wasn't really comfortable. As they walked with each other out the room she towered over the old man. Outside of the room was a cliff, her claws sank into the soft earth as she walked on the icy floor.

Lillian peered over the ledge revealing the main camp. There were five wooden lodges fairly large circling a central fire pit.

"Where am I?" Lillian asked as she turned to Thermin. "And were are my friends?"

"My Queen you are in Green Leaf camp and to as where your friends are at we will find out soon." Thermin answered as pulled a tiny trumpet out of his jacket pocket and blew into it. The sound as louder then the size of it.

She watched in amazement as people spilled out from the lodges she felt something hit against her head. She grabbed her head instinctively. She grimaced just before asking Thermin what that was. She realized It was the thing that she was missing. She let down her brick wall.

Both of their minds connected. What's going on? Thunder asked

I don't know what you were hoping you could tell me. Lillian responded as she looked around trying to figure out what was going on.

"It's time to speak to your people my Queen." Thermin smiled at her most of his teeth had fallen out.

She was internally screaming as she saw no less than a hundred faces looking at her. Lillian still didn't feel well enough to fly off and it looked as if she tried to escape they would deny her exit. She felt her throat close up and she had to gulp to get air into her body.

"Are you well my Queen." Thermin asked after a few moments of everyone just staring at her.

"I'm fine." she whispered to Thermin and smiled at him hoping that it was convincing. "My people of Green Leaf. I have arrived." her voice shook as she squeezed the words out of her mouth.

Shouts came from the crowd, and a thunderous clapping came from them. She was taken aback from the response. They slowly bent over, placing the fist on their breast bowing to her.

"No please don't do that." Lillian waved her paws in front of her. Lillian wanted to run back into her room. This was too much for her. She was a simple dragon roo who didn't come from much and never required much. Everyone quickly stood back up and she breathed a sigh of relief. "I still need to recover in my room but I will be around later." Lillian said.

Lillian Backed into the castle, Thermin was hot on her heels . She was Nervous. Who were these people? How did she get here? Why were they calling her Queen? She needed Thunder not Therimin.

"Hey could you go fetch my friends please?"

"Certainly but let me lead you to your throne room." He led her down a couple of corridors and into a purple room with a long red rug that led to massive steps that had a metal chair perched at the top. It was about 8 ft tall and had three large windows that looked over the edge of the mountain and overlooked the city of New Haven. She bounded the steps slowly, even though she healed herself her body was still sore.

"Are you okay my Mistress." Thermin cool voice washed over her.

"What did you just call me?" Lillian's ear perked.

"Mistress?" Thermin responded sounding confused.

"I like that." Lillian sighed as she sat down, it was unusually warm even though it looked as if no one had been in the room except to clean.

Lillian watched as her group walked in followed by Thermin, hopefully they wouldn't be too mad at her. She locked eyes with Thunder. He looked sad which was an expression she wasn't quite used to. She looked at Everyone they looked back at her with a solemn expression.

"What's wrong guys?" Lillian nervously laughed.

"We thought you'd never wake." Thunder spoke up and his voice cracked a bit. "We couldn't visit all we could do was hope that you would come out of that castle."

"We're glad you're okay." Varl smiled at her.

"They didn't let you visit?" Lillian asked as she remembered that they specifically were looking for dragons."

"We thought that but apparently they just wanted a dragoness."

I need some rest. Can you meet me later? Lillian thought to Thunder. He nodded his head at her.

"We have to let the princess get her rest; she still needs to recover.

" Thunder winked at her. "We will be here for around two days so let's see what we find out about this camp."

Her eyes shot open two days wouldn't be close to enough time to recover. At the thought of having to recover her depleted energy her eyes sagged close.

"Mistress?" Thermin's voice jolted her awake. "We've cooked you a feast for lunch, if you would kindly follow me."

Her stomach growled at the thought of food. "Good." Was Lillian's response. She hopped along as Thermin told her the history of the green leaf castle and how it was never used by anyone and it was a cardinal sin for anyone to enter without explicit permission.

What are you doing now I can sense that you are happy. Thunder's mind brushed her mind. She sent him a mental image of a feast. Ah you get to eat a feast and we get to eat scraps. Thunder responded.

"My Mistress are you well?" Thermin asked "Sorry for speaking to so directly." He immediately apologized.

It was easy for her to forget that Thunder wasn't actually in the room. Slightly embarrassed she turned to Thermin. "Don't worry I'll be fine." Lillian gave him a toothy grin.

As they walked through the door and into the dining room it was massive as if it could hold 30 to 40 more beings easily and the table was long and filled with food. Lillian's nose was flooded with scents of meats she couldn't identify most of them. Her mouth watered, they sat her in a reclined chair. It was rough but comfortable "What's this for?" Lillian asked

No one answered her but the room burst into a frenzy. Platters of food were being carried to her. While two people stood next to her fanning. As dish by dish she was fed. All of it tasted amazing and well seasoned.

After she ate her keep they stared at Lillian with unblinking eyes. "Did you enjoy your meal Mistress?" One of the severs asked her.

If someone would have asked if she thought she'd be treated as royalty she would have laughed in their face. She came from nothing, her parents were traders. But at this moment she was enjoying every second.

"Yes, thank you." Lillian sighed and smiled, it's been awhile since she had a meal this filling. Now if you could prepare me a bath and a glass of wine then you can rest."

They nodded her and left except for one. She was young and beautiful and dressed in red and white. "Hey," Lillian called out as she watched clean off the long table. "I need you to do something for me."

The girl paused and looked up at her. "And what would you like, M'lady."

"I need you to fetch my friend Orion." She needed to boost up Her energy, meditating would take too long and she didn't want to spend longer than she needed. "He's a grey cat with white markings and a galaxy mane.

She bowed to Lillian, and she was hot with embarrassment. "No need to do that." She waves her paws in front of her face.

"Your wish, my command." The servant placed her fist over her heart. And with that she was gone.

"Are you sure you don't want Varl or Thunder?" Orion asked as he joined her in the throne room again. "Because I could go and get them."

Lillian could almost laugh. It was pretty weird that she was asking for Orion. "No no," she felt a smile spread across her face. "I don't need either one of them, if I did then I would have asked for them. No, I need you for technological reasons."

She placed both palms out and blue energy escaped her palms in a puff of smoke.

"Is that what you used to charge the crystals?" He slowly approached her. She couldn't lie every time someone reacted in amazement it made her heart sing and make her smile brighter.

"Yeah, but unfortunately I'm out of juice and can't finish healing myself. All I can do is meditate but that'll take two full days.

She saw Orion's mind race as he took a seat on the steps below the throne. Lillian could see what Thunder saw in the Jungle Lion; his face was cute when it was scrunched up while being deep in thought.

_ “Hey that's my boyfriend” _ . She felt Thunder's mind pry into her's.

She laughed out loud. the usually confident Thunder thinks I'm after his boyfriend . Well if you see how cute he was while he's thinking you'll see where the thought came from.

"Hey Lil, who are you talking to?" Orion asked as he climbed the rest of the steps to her.

"No...one just thinking." Lillian tried to laugh it off. But Orion didn't join her. Damn. She swore to herself and to a Thunder. "Okay I'll tell you but promise not to freak. Orion just nodded his head in response. She sighed this was going to take the cake in everything she's been through the last couple of days.

“...I don't know how to tell you this but erm me and your boyfriend are twin flames we share dragon energy." She watched for any expression change but none came. "We can share emotions and communicate telepathically and we can share dream worlds."

"Ah that's why he's been distant since we left Angel's Haven, And I've been noticing how he acts with you it's the same with me I don't know many people that he's patient with." He gripped her paws and his golden eyes met her icy blue eyes. "He loves you."

"But what about you?" She asked. Her mind went racing. She loved the idea but didn't want to come between the two.

"He has two hands." Orion smiled at her.

Her mind raced. "Wait-"

"No more on this. I figured out your energy problem." She couldn't believe that she almost forgot.

He pulled out a little trinket with wires hanging out that looked as if it had a display screen. "GPS?"

"Yeah," then his expression turned into a frown. "How do you know?

"Gus." she growled at the idea of the fat bastard.

"Ah, never mind that. He ripped out the battery cell that was powering it. "Try this." He tossed it to her.

She caught it as she looked down at the cell. It glowed blue and it was vibrant. Lillian wrapped her paws around the grey shell. She closed her eyes reaching out to the power source. She had to really concentrate to get her mind out of her body, she felt for the power source which shined brighter than her dull blue energy. The battery cell was filled to the top with blue liquid; it was blocked by a barrier just like a dam. Lillian rammed her spirit into it cracking the and allowing the liquid to flow through her. She never anticipated how much energy it could hold; she was quickly filled with energy but more wanted to seep into her and she almost did. It was addictive to fill that fast.

She slowly opened her eyes and Orion she stared at in awe. Thermin had joined him and he quickly dropped to his knee. He began chanting in a language that Lillian did not know.

"Forgive me mistress I didn't mean to intrude on your unadulterated moment." Thermin begin to chant in his language again, this time in a sadder tune.

"It's okay Thermin we just finished up." Lillian looked at her paws again and she was still fully powered up; she had blue veins on her arms. "I just had to restore my power. and your dismissed for the rest of the night please go join the others."

"As you wish mistress." he raised back up and bowed to her. And again sorry Prince Orion 

  
  



	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The hunters become the hunted.

Thunder was curled around Orion in an empty part of the lodge. He closed his eyes and prepared to meet with Lillian. Which he was happy to do. It had been a day since they had joined minds in the dream world. But before he closed his eyes the smell of a wolf hit his nose, almost untraceable. He tapped Orion's chest.

"Wha?" Orion groggily asked. 

We have to leave." Thunder whispered as he unwrapped his body and tail from around his boyfriend's. He began to dress again. 

"What for?" Orion rolled over and smiled as Thunder was getting dressed,

"Remember the Children of The Light?" 

"Yes, what for?"

"Well they're nearby and lurking we need to leave now." Thunder slung his messenger bag over his shoulder. 

Orion didn't ask anymore questions just quickly got dressed. Thunder pulled the energy rifles out and handed one to Orion. If they knew where they were than no use hiding their toys. They walked out the door calmly. 

"Where's Varl at?" Thunder asked as he swept the camp grounds. Looking for anything to shift. It was the dead of night and most of the humans were asleep. Thunder couldn't see that well in the dark . He could make out shapes of things but he wasn't the best navigator.

"Dunno, he said he would sleep outside the camp." Orion responded as he grabbed his shoulder and guided him." 

Thunder looked up at the castle which was shrouded in darkness. He would have to get her up soon.

"You need to fill her in." He felt Orion's grip get tighter.

Thunder understood that Orion knew about their special relationship but he'd worry about that later. Right now he wanted to to get everyone out safely.

"Say, What did you go visit her for?" Thunder asked as they made their toward the stables.

"She needed to replenish her energy?" Orion obviously not understanding what's happening.

"Yeah that makes since why they're here." Thunder said as they reached the stables was the silence was broken by a loud howl.

"Well we need to get out of here this no place to fight." Thunder said as got on his horse. His ears twitched in excitement.

 _LILLIAN WAKE UP!_ Thunder shouted at Lillian's resting mind, he felt her mind come back from the dream world. 

_What? Where were you? Why are you scared and excited?_ Lillian fired off a bunch of questions at him.

 _The children of the light are here so we need to go or get caught._ They had no time to talk he could smell the wolves getting closer. 

_Okay but I have to let Thermin know ._ He felt the connection server. 

He trotted off on his horse feeling the wind blow through his fur. His heart thumped as they passed through the camp going the opposite way of the smell of wolf and he was guessing some type of fox. It was going to be dangerous traveling at night with no lantern but it was going to be the only way that they had any chance of surviving.

 _Leaving._ Lillian called out as he saw her snake over his head.

He sent her a mental image of where he wanted her to go. _And if you see Varl get him to follow you._

They raced out of the camp into pure darkness. It was a cloudy night and it covered the moon giving them hardly any light. He slowed his horse down letting Orion take the lead. His heart thumped quickly as they raced through the trees he was holding onto the reins till his knuckles were white. The smell of wolves was getting stronger as they dodged around the trees and made the horses trudge through the snow. 

_Okay we are on our way to the location. Are you guys safe?_ Lillian asked 

_I can't see but yeah we are safe at the moment. we are approaching the bridge don't worry about us we'll be fine. just to be extra careful don't use any of your abilities._ He glanced back, just darkness swallowing the trees behind him. They should have left earlier but he just wanted to rest before setting off. He should have made Lillian want to leave but that is neither here nor there.

"What do you see?" Thunder asked, trying to mask the panic in his voice.

"I see uh. Orion hesitated. I see a bridge below. I think this links us to the city down below. 

As they bounded down the hill he kept adjusting himself in the saddle trying to keep from fiddling to much, he pushed the feeling of unease down he couldn't his eyes to settle, he looked in all direction he knew that he would be able to smell the wolves before he could see them yet his eyes continued to look around. 

"Uh we have a problem." Orion called back.

"What's wrong babe? "Thunder asked, eyes snapped forward, they had left the dense trees and were in a clearing. 

"There's no bridge." Orion led his horse next to Thunder.

"Damn it." Thunder took a sniff of the air. "What are we going to do?." They were gaining way to fast to find another way around. 

"Lilly." Orion answered 

"Right." Thunder nodded his head. 

_Lillian we are in need of some assistance can you meet us at the bridge._ Thunder called out. He moved them up wind trying to mask their scent as he smelled the wolves closing in. His heart beat started settling in as adrenaline started to wear off. 

_I’ll be there soon just hang on._ Lillian answered. _I was halfway there going to turn around._

“Easy mission my ass.” Thunder mumbled as he got the sacks off his horse and placed them over his shoulders. He swatted the horse’s butt sending it on it’s way. He rested against a tree . He was thankful for his winter coat even though it could be heavy at times. 

“I'm going to need a vacation after this.” Orion sighed as waited next to Thunder with his weapon drawn

“Yeah I think I'm going to take a month off if we survive this.” Thunder answered. 

Lillian pulled up to them while she was hovering in the air. Thunder was glad she was on their side because without her they would be stranded and left to the wolves.

“Can we make this quick? The wolves are on top of us and I don’t want to know what they look like.” Thunder quipped he stuck his hand up.

Lillian lifted him up, taking off.

“I thought you could handle “this”” Lillian said. 

“What I thought I could but no bridge means no crossing. After saying that Thunder heard a howl behind them. “We could have been caught.” 

“And we don’t want that, do we?” Lillian snickered

“No we don’t.” Thunder’s ears twitched in irritation.

They landed on the other side of the bridge and it was still snowing. They began trekking slowly both Lillian and Varl looked cold Thunder almost felt bad for him. 

“So what’s the plan?” Orion asked.

“We ask around to see if anyone has seen Gus and we continue on.” Thunder answered gruffly. 

“Keep going I have to talk to Varl.”

Thunder slowly dropped back, the idea of confronting Varl made him shiver, he placed his paws in his pocket. 

“I know your secret.” Thunder gave Varl a side eye as he walked next to him. 

“I don’t know what you are talking about.” The red dragon shook his head. 

“Don’t try to fool me.” Thunder growled. “I know that Gus didn’t get an energy cell from out of thin air. You wanted to get rid of your energy weapon and decided it would be a good idea to sell it.”

Varl recoiled at Thunder’s words it looked as if he wanted to take off but to Thunder surprise didn’t. 

“I have one question. Thunder lowered his voice. “Are you working for them?”

Varl opened his wings and puffed his chest against Thunder’s. “No one time and that was it. 

Thunder shoved Varl away. He wasn’t going to let the dragon think he was somehow better than him. just for Varl threw a punch Lillian grabbed him. 

“We are not about to do this. we need to work together and find Gus.” Lillian walked back to the front.

He was met by a large city covered in snow. The gate was at least a couple of hundred feet and coated with gold. There was a wolf dressed in armor leaned against the wall next to the gate. 

“Stop right there.” The wolf called out as she readied her spear. 

“Look, we mean no harm just some dirty humans chasing us.” Thunder switched to canine.

“Man are you serious, I'll have them open the gate but if I find you are lying then I will remove you lot myself.” She growled.

"I promise." Thunder continued in canine.

She tapped on the gates, they slowly opened revealing a city covered in snow. The cobblestone road led them into the middle of the town. 

“Hey follow the road to the custom office I can tell that you four aren’t from around here.

“So you lied?.” Varl asked once the gates closed behind them. 

"Yeah," Thunder stared at Varl. "wait you know canine."Thunder held Orion’s paw trying to warm his freezing paw and yawned. 

"I tell you all about after this." Varl quickly walked to the front leading them down the lit path.

***

“Who is in charge here?” Thunder asked slightly slurring his speech, they had been denied entry. He felt Orion pulling him back.

“You need to back off dog.” The pale faced human said from behind the desk. “How did you even get through the gates anyway I told Rasean not to let anyone in and here you are.” 

“We can work something out just let us sleep for the night.” Lillian towered over the human.”

“Maybe,” He paused and looked around his red hair bobbed around like a rooster's comb. “What if I held on to your weapons?” 

“Sure we need to sleep. I am coming back for it tomorrow.” Thunder said rubbing his eyes as he took his sword off and handed his rifle over. 

“Wait let's think about this.” Varl said.

“You can but I can't. I'll be in the room sleeping.” Thunder said, closing his eyes.

“Now just sign in and head over to the Honey Badger they’ll set you up with a room.” The human said.

Thunder just wanted to lay down and sleep forever. He quickly signed his name and left out. He stumbled himself to the honey badger he felt his mind slipping and running into Lillian’s he shook his head. Sleep was the only thing on his mind. There it was an inn built on a cobblestone foundation with brick and woods walls. 

He climbed the wooden steps onto the deck and entered the building.

“I need a room.” Thunder said as he rested his head on the stone desk.

“How Many.” The help sounded irritated.

“Three,” Thunder paused “Four, yeah for four.”

“Alright, last room to the left, and keep it down.” She handed him a key.

He grabbed the key and ambled to the door and went in. Everything was made from wood, he sighed at this moment and didn't care what he laid on he just wanted to sleep. He was asleep before he even hit the pillow. 


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Freaky Friday type beat

Lillian climbed out of bed and the light filtered through the blinds it was the early morning. What was Orion doing in my bed she thought as she almost fell. Something was off it was like she was shorter. She looked into the other bed. She took a couple of steps back and fell back into the bed.

“Ow babe.” Orion said.

“Babe?” Lillian’s voice sounded deeper, it sounded like Thunder.

She covered her mouth and kept blinking as she looked at herself sleeping . The one thing that they weren’t ready for was already happening. Lillian felt dizzy, she stumbled out of the room she wasn’t really used to her new legs. This better happened for the right reason because there was no going back after this. 

“What’s the matter hun? Is it the room?” Orion asked following her out of the room.

“No it is nothing I think I might just be sick.” Lillian coughed covering her mouth with Thunder’s yellow and black paws. She needed to escape.

“Do you need anything? I can get Lillian up if you need her.” 

“No I’ll be okay. Hun? Lillian said the word sounding foreign on her tongue. 

“Okay.” Orion sniggered. “Maybe you are really sick.” 

_ I have wings what the hell Lillian.  _ Thunder’s voice screamed in her head.

_ And I have tiny cute paws seriously, how do you grip anything with these things?  _ Lillian asked

  
“Now you are doing it. Is Lil up?” Orion asked.

“Yeah she’s up.” Lilian said. 

_ Don’t touch anything.  _ Lillian said she hid her trembling paws behind her back as Orion kissed her forehead. 

She heard a loud crash and cry of pain. She rushed over. If she wasn’t so shocked she would have laughed but she just stared. Is that how she looked perhaps she was cuter than she gave herself credit for. 

“Don’t look at me like that creep you have a boyfriend, remember?” Thunder said as he got up.

God she was tall, Lillian was legit intimidated by her own height. She just walked into Thunder’s stomach and hugged him.

“What’s wrong small fry?” Thunder asked as he hugged back.

“You two are really weird.” Varl said from the room,

“Shut up.” Thunder said.

Lillian laughed; it was a hearty chuckle. Finally she didn’t have to stand up for herself Thunder could in her body, maybe this could work out in her favor.

“What Thunder what could possibly be so funny?” Varl asked as he sounded frustrated.

“Well don’t know, maybe the fact that Lillian told you to shut up.” Lillian sniffled her laughs. 

“Shut up Thunder.” Varl gave an exasperated sigh. 

“Come with me Thunder.” Thunder said as he grabbed her wrist. 

“Hey is she calling the shots now?” Varl said, trying to follow them out. Thunder slammed the door. Trapping him in the room.

“We are finding Gus today and turning him in; we just need to get our weapons.” 

“And what about our group?” 

“Well hopefully it won’t come to that but you have an earpiece.” Thunder said, tapping Lillian paw behind his ear.

They headed out the door. It was a scarier place with Thunder's body size everyone seemed to loom over her. The streets seemed bustling with people going in different directions. She looked up at Lillian/Thunder and made her look stoic and just made her look awesome. She just sighed dreamily. 

“What LIllian.” He said 

“The way you carry me it makes me look like a legend.” Lillian said as she pushed someone out of the way.

“Well I can show you how to carry yourself when we switch back, whenever that is “ Thunder said as everyone avoided him. 

“So how does it feel?” Lillian asked. 

“Feel’s good, like your body knows what to do so I’m just following it’s lead.” Thunder answered. 

They arrived at the customs office. A wooden board that had closed painted in red hung in the window. 

“Great,” Thunder sighed. “Let’s see if we can get in through the back. 

“I didn’t know bounty hunters stole.” Lillian said, putting Thunder’s paw on his waist. 

“We are not law enforcers, we get what we want however we see fit and try not get caught in the process.” Thunder said.

He quickly ran around the building. She had to sprint to keep up but Thunder’s body was light and fast and she had no problem. 

There was a simple lock that hung on the backdoor from what Lillian could tell it was made from iron. Thunder inspected it while she kept watch down the alleyway.

“Well unless you have some type of dragon strength that can break iron it’s locked.” 

“No,” Lillian was about to give in. “But you do.” 

Lillian walked over to the door. Closed her eyes she prayed to the gods for this to work. She opened up Thunder’s energy gates and allowed it to flow around and mix around. There was a lot of it, she tried her best to concentrate some into his paw. She reached out with his paw and crushed the lock, shattering it. 

“Woah I was glowing yellow.” Thunder said, he opened the now unlocked door. 

“Yeah, you have a lot of energy and I released some so when we trade bodies again you should be able to use it. 

Thunder's body could see way better in the dark than she could, she quickly navigated the halls. They arrived behind the counter and the weapons were nowhere to be found. This was bad. 

“Try to pick up their scent if I remember the guy had a specific pine smell. Maybe we can find out where he is.”

“Hey babe where did you sneak off with Lillian too? “ Orion’s voice had come from the ear piece. Lillian’s tail wished back and forth nervously. 

“We are at the customs office and we can’t find our weapons.” Lillian looked over at Thunder and he shook his head at her.

“We are on our way to you hold on.”

“Okay.” 

“Why would you tell him what happened?” Thunder said with an exasperated expression. Her face looking like that could make her laugh.

“Sorry for being honest?” She shot the look back at him.

Lillian picked up a handkerchief and took a smell with her new wolf nose. Stale pine, but pine nonetheless. It now locked into her nose.

“Is this how you tracked me?” Lillian asked. “Come on I know where to go.” Lillian grabbed Thunder wrist and pulled him towards the exit. 

“Yeah I track a scent over at least 50 miles.” Thunder said. 

As they entered the alleyway two large men approached them. They towered over Lillian, and they had muscles where it shouldn’t even be possible.

“Gus says thanks for bringing his weapons back to him.” One of the bald brothers said with a deep voice. 

“Well let's hope that my body takes over.” Thunder said as he grappled the one that spoke to them. 

Lillian had to dodge out the way of several punches that came towards her. Thunder had lightning fast reflexes. She didn’t even have to think about dodging out of the way it was as if his body didn’t want to get hurt. She saw an opening as she ducked under a punch. She balled his fist and punched the muscle head in the neck. She felt thunder’s paw go through the muscle and hit something important. The meat head fell to the ground and shook his head trying to clear it. 

She looked over and saw herself launch the dude into the alley wall with a thud. 

“You are going to be a beast when I’m finished with you.” Thunder said, messaging his wrists.

“Are you two alright?” Orion asked walking straight who he thought was Thunder.

“Yeah we are fine just got into a bit of an argument.” Lillian said 

“What happened Lil?” Varl asked who he thought was Lillian.

Lillian never heard a response as she ran out of the alley the pine smell wasn’t too far away. 

“Come on, no time to waste. They are near, we can’t let them get away now.” Lillian said quickly, running through the alley. Back on to the main street. 

“What’s the plan? Orion asked. 

_ Tell him to go do some recon and we will come up with something after that. _ Thunder’s voice said as their minds connected. 

“Go do some recon we’ll decide what to do after that.” Lillian said.

“Okay what will you guys do in the meantime?” He asked.

“Find food and figure out what we can about Gus no way he has been moving silently.” Thunder said. 

Everyone looked at who they thought was Lillian. 

“What we lost the horses and food that was on them right?” He said.

They just nodded their heads. Lillian just laughed to herself. They were going to have to confess what was actually going on at some point.

As they were walking down the street looking for somewhere to eat, a familiar scent hit Thunder’s nose but Lillian couldn’t quite pinpoint the smell. Lillian glanced around trying to see if she could find it. Her mind raced still no answer. 

_ Does an oily smell ring any bells?  _ Lillian asked Thunder. 

_ No not really. Why?  _ Thunder asked. 

“Guys we might want to run. Alastor is here..” Varl said as he took to the sky. They watched as he got sniped out of the air. The four legged wolf started sprinting and five bat eared foxes followed him aiming these sort of crossbow looking things. 

_ Don’t fly, they already got Varl.  _ Lillian said, keeping a constant link with Thunder. 

Thunder sprinted in front of them taking the lead, he turned them down the alley. 

“Orion get out of there and take the back streets. The children of light have found us. Destroy your ear piece” Her voice trembled 

She ripped the ear piece out and threw it down as they ended up on another street. She looked around feverishly and the oily smell was closing in again. Lillian ran away from it, her heart pounding in her chest. They needed a way out and fast. She took a gamble and searched for a horse’s scent. 

She found one and ran towards it. She loaded up Thunder’s paw with energy. The carriage leisuried down the cobblestone road. Lillian gave the wooden beam a chop breaking it in half. And hopped on the horse.”

“Come on Thunder. We need to go.” 

Thunder hopped on the front of the horse taking its reins. They raced down the street weaving through traffic.

“Good thinking Lil.” Thunder said as they approached the gate to get out.

“Thanks it was totally a what would Thunder do situation.” Lillian said as they galloped out of the gates and back into the snow. They only slowed down when they felt like they were far enough away. 

He laughed as they sped through the gate. She felt the tension leave her body Lillian's stomach growled. She forgot that they never got a chance to eat. She could feel Thunder’s nerves; he was on edge and hungry as well. Her face softened 

“Don’t worry Orion will show up he has to.” Lillian said, hugging his back tight. “And we will get through this.”

As soon as she rested her muzzle on his back she blacked out. She opened her eyes and she was holding the reins. She was back. She laughed oh man it felt good to be back in her body though she was glad she could experience what it felt like to be Thunder. She couldn’t wait to fly again.

“Let’s hide under that ledge.” Thunder jumping off the horse and into the snow. 

They rested against each other not saying much as they waited for Orion to show up. Lillian wished she could do something. But all she could think of is what happened to Varl and knowing if she did anything she’d suffer the same fate. Every second that Orion didn’t show up felt like torment. 

After what felt like an hour to Lillian they heard a horse galloping towards them. She poked her head over the ledge. A gray and white big cat with a galaxy mane was heading towards them. 

She jumped into the air and flew towards him as he stopped his horse. She brought him close in for a hug.

“Your mane is soft.” Lillian choked out as she cried happy tears. 

“Glad you guys made it out safe.” Orion said, bringing Thunder into the hug. 

Lillian let go to let them talk. They were close to finding Gus but at the same time Varl had been captured she didn’t know what she wanted to do and she knew that she would have to decide.

“Well we are going to have to find somewhere to sleep because this won’t work. It's too open.” Thunder said hopping back on the grey horse. 

“Let me scout ahead. I might be able to spot something in the air.” Lillian said, stretching her wings. 

“Okay we'll be your eyes. If I tell you to come down you come down okay?” Thunder said. 

“I will, I promise.” Lillian said, taking off into the air. She opened her wings, the air under her wings felt good and she drifted back and forth. She felt so light like she could be carried away with the breeze. The snow mixed with the mountain range looked beautiful under her and the waterfall coming off the side of the mountain made for a great scene.

She scanned the mountain range and it was getting colder by the second. She searched up and down the range. She looked down and saw a sinkhole not too far from where her search began. She flew down into it.

It was warmer than she expected. Light filtered in showing off grey stalagmite and stalactite. It would have to work. The smell of wet snow hit her nose. Maybe there was fresh water somewhere nearby. She would have to investigate that later. 

She sent Thunder an aerial map of how to get there as she waited outside. She would have to help them down and figure out what they were going to eat. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two or three more Chapters to go will the search for Gus end successfully or will The Children of The Light end their journey before they get the chance.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The great shake up

Thunder didn’t know what to think the first hours of the day where hell and it just didn’t end. He sighed, as they stopped in front of Lillian. He hopped off the horse. 

“So this is it.” Thunder said trying to keep from sounding underwhelmed. This mission was starting to look impossible. 

“Yeah here let me show you the inside. Orion first.” Lillian said. 

Thunder just nodded his head. Too much was on his mind. And the fact that he almost lost Orion was just the icing on top. He shoved his paws in his pocket. Maybe he did deserve the rank he got. If only he didn’t give up his weapons they could have a chance.

He felt Lillian bring him into her stomach. 

“What’s the matter?” She asked.

“I don’t think we are going to find Gus before he escapes.” Thunder said, closing his eyes. He has never let anyone escape in his mission but this one was feeling impossible, especially with no tools or weapons. This is what his parents thought that his life would be him just failing left in right.

“Well let us get something to eat then we can figure out what to do after that.” Lillian replied. “Hop on my back I’ll take you down to the bottom.”

Thunder snuggled into her scales were rough but comfortable. They descended into the darkness. Thunder could smell traces of snakes and other smaller animals probably could be used for food. He placed his hand paw on the ground and it was warm to the touch. His ears twitched at the sound of flowing water.He took a shaky breath, maybe it wasn’t the end of the world. 

“Hun if you could track us down some food. Lillian can you gather wood and kindling for fire. And I will check out the water.” Thunder paced back and forth, trying to get his breathing under control he had to look better than how he felt. He needed everything to end okay. 

He took off towards where he thought the water was coming from. As he walked a blue light got brighter as he got closer to the sound of gentle lapping. He came to another cavern opening, a bright blue pool of water sat there looking at him, something  bioluminescent must have been glowing at the bottom. Steam gentle rose off the surface of the water. It looked inviting, he first cupped his hand and gulped it down, and wiped the extra water that dribbled down his muzzle. He breathed a sigh of relief. It was drinkable.

He stripped all the way down and stepped into the water. There was a natural sitting place for him. It was rough on his butt but it would have to do. The water relaxed the tension in his muscles and he became weightless. His face felt warm, this is exactly what he needed somewhere to relax. He would have to tell Orion and Lillian about this later. His quest to prove his parents wrong was getting hard.

_ “You seem to be feeling better.”  _ Lillian thought at him. 

_ “Yeah I’ll show you when you're finished. No rush.” he thought back.  _

He got out of the spring and toweled off with his cape, he thought back to all of his years training with his family, he felt like he was doing the same with Lillian and Orion. He wanted this to continue. He rushed back; he needed to tell Orion how he felt about Lillian. 

“Hey babe I caught and skinned some snakes. How’d the search for water go?”

“I found a hot spring good for drinking and relaxing in.” 

“I-” Thunder started then/ stopped.

“I want us to include Lillian in our circle”

“I was going to say the same actually, we should ask her.” Thunder laughed, maybe he wasn’t as hard to read as he thought.

“She literally is your other half so I trust you two.” Orion said kissing Thunder on the muzzle.

“What are you two love birds up to?” She asked, setting down the kindling and tree branches.

“Well we wanted to ask if you wanted to date the two of us?” Thunder asked. She dropped the branches. And ran over to them hugging them.

“I thought you two were going to break up because of me, yes I want in.” She sounded choked up. Her icy blue eyes lit up. 

He kissed her on the cheek while Orion took the other cheek. 

“Your parents are going to kill you.” Thunder teased.

“Yeah but I’m royalty they could never.” Orion snapped back.

Maybe it was the spring but this cave might have been one of the best things that happened to him.

**** 

After they ate and soaked in the hot spring. Lillian brought Thunder out of the cave later that night.

“Please be careful baby.” Lillian said as she dropped him down and kissed him on the nose. “Keep me updated.”

Thunder wasn’t going to get used to two people worrying over him. He nodded his head and hopped on his horse. The plan was to find Varl because Lillian and Orion voted in favor. Even though he expressed that they should just try to track Gus down and bring him in and sort out the Varl thing later. But since they wanted him to bring Varl back he had to ignore pine scent fading 

He turned his attention to the oily scent. Following its trail through the snow that contrasted the grey mountain range. His nose wrinkled, he started to turn the horse to the pine smell then stopped. What if he chased Gus instead, Lillian and Orion would be angry, The Children of Light would collect on his bounty. They could finally go home though. Man having two partners was rough. He would have to respect their decision. He growled and continued on his path. He loved them too much to go over them. 

He closed in a couple of meters from their camp. It was not like a normal camp; it looked like a mini village with the various houses set up; it looked like a permanent settlement. He sniffed the air and got a good smell of a dragon’s earthy smell. He would have to be quiet hopefully his scent would blend in.

A chill washed over him and not from the cold wind that was a constant reminder that he was high in the mountains. He heard commotion coming towards him so he hid behind the first building. Making his way slowly towards what he thought was Varl’s scent. He hopped building to building. 

His heart was pounding in his chest with every move he made, sometimes having to reverse direction to avoid detection.  _ Come on Thunder you were made for this.  _ He thought to himself. As he was crossing the back of a building inching ever closer. He heard someone relieving themselves on the back of the building. Like a snake Thunder jabbed his paws into the fox’s neck he used a bit of energy to shock them. 

He looked down, maybe there was something of importance on the body, he flipped the body over and covered his exposed parts up as he shuffled through the fox’s pocket. He felt something square and pulled it out. A security card, maybe lady luck was smiling down on him. He took the sword off the comatose fox. 

He made his way to the largest building and swiped the card. Inside was like he was transported back home. Everything was made from metal and large reactors. He looked in the clear tanks and it looked like Lillian’s blue energy flowing in it spinning around. They had been busy. What could the Children of The Light possibly use these for and why were they using tech that they swore to keep out of? Thunder thought as he followed the dragon’s scent. 

He avoided the security detail making sure to keep to the shadows blending in with his background . Varl’s scent led him to a metal door he pressed the card against the scanner, the door slid open he readying the sword that he stole preparing for a fight but, Varl was standing there in his armor giving a report. 

Thunder quickly moved behind the wall and held his breath.. The Children of Light were working with Varl. He knew he shouldn’t have trusted the dragon. He had to strain his ear to hear. 

“Both Thunder and Lillian are energy manipulators and if we can capture them we will have an infinite resource of power and build an empire off of them.” Varl paced around the room. 

Thunder wished he could see who he was talking to but Varl kept looking back and forth preventing him from seeing who was on the screen. He was guessing it was Gus.

“Good We will have those two by the morning, make sure you keep watch. Lillian is a sneaky little girl.” Thunder sneaked back out of the building. Well that was a waste. The fire drake really deceived them leading him right where he wanted to go.

_ “It's no good, Varl’s working with The Children of Light who are coming for us tomorrow.”  _ Thunder shared what he saw.

_ God damnit I really trusted him even after he let me down.  _ Lillian thought back at him.

  
  


She went dark and he tried to reach out to her. But nothing just his own thoughts. Varl was going to pay. He wanted to strike him down where he stood but he would have to wait to get his revenge on the fire drake later but he was going to pay for hurting his girl.

He just needed to borrow their weapons first. He headed the way of the guy he knocked out. 

Entering in the house that the fox that he knocked out, he noticed that it was well lit.Thunder put his nose up, and took a cautionary sniff to see if anyone was home. He was in the clear just the smell of booze filled his nose. He felt the wooden walls,the walls where laminated TheChildren of Light did not belong here. 

He walked into the Fox’s room, it was an absolute mess. Thunder couldn’t believe how some beings lived. Even though he spent most of his time in the wild he still kept his spaces tidy. And not with junk food everywhere, a messy bed and… He grabbed the rifle, it was white and had a long barrel like a dragon it was definitely the one he took from Gus. 

Thunder didn’t have time to ponder the door slammed open. That was his que to leave. He put the rifle on his back activating the magnetic plate on his back. He cracked his neck; he felt his muscles tighten in readiness as he rushed out with his sword. Only two foxes that was a good start. They were bigger than him so he would have to use their weight and size against them. They raised their swords at him. He inhaled through his nose and out the mouth. He swung at the fox closet to him and their swords clashed.

A fury of blade clashes happened, a few fur hairs shaved but he was holding his own. He looked for an opening as they continued dancing with their blades, they had him surrounded. He dodged under the fox’s blade that was in front of him. He stabbed forward piercing through the fox’s armor, he toppled letting out a groan as he did.

One down two to go he thought to himself as he turned to the last fox. Thunder telegraphed the fox’s overhead strike and he slapped the sword up and out of the fox’s paw. 

“You aren’t going to stop me that easily.” Thunder said, pointing his sword at the fox; whose fear scent was getting stronger by the second. 

Thunder quickly made his escape out the door. And back to his horse he rested on his horse panting, he took the reins in his paws. Hopefully Gus showed up tomorrow because his career as a bounty hunter depended on it. He turned his horse around and started the journey back home. On his trip through the woods he saw the most beautiful purple butterflies flying in through the trees. He lifted his paws as he traveled, keeping one on the tip of his paw. 

His eyes started to get misty as he got closer to the cave he wiped his eyes. 

_ I know Lillian, he lied to you and you trusted him and he let you down.  _ Thunder thought as he rubbed his chest of that all too familiar feeling.  _ Come up and let’s talk okay.  _

Lillian came up slowly. He went to hug her. He stepped on his tippy toes and kissed her on the cheek. Thunder took her paws into his and led her over to a log. 

“I am sorry Lil I really wanted him to be a good guy.” Thunder said as he continued to hold her paws. It tore him up seeing her cry like that. 

“I can’t do this babe.” Lillian sounded choked up. “I don’t want to fight him.”

“Why don’t you want to fight him?”

“He was my friend.”

“I know this is going to be hard but that’s why we will do this together.”

Thunder pulled her in for another hug. He wanted her to know that he was here for her and wanted to erase the pain but the only way that could happen is if they worked together. He opened his full mind to her, showing her when he first got his heart broken and how he had no one to look to for help.

Something magical happened that night, something that would change the world.


	12. Chapter 12

Thunder and Lillian were in a dreamstate they only had a few hours to put their plan together with just two weapons. One thing that they quickly came to the solution of is that they needed to keep Orion away from the fight. At the moment they were going through an attack situation, it wasn’t going as planned. Every time someone got stabbed or they both got overwhelmed and got split up.

“What if we went after the big three?” Lillian asked as she paused the battle on the snowy mountain top. 

“That could work. I still have some cuffs and other items.” Thunder said he moved some of the bat eared foxes out of the way.

“Target Gus and work our way down if they don’t have their leaders then we destroy any formation they try.” Lillian said.

They continued to work through the night. They had devised a plan and for the most part it worked.

“We should stop, we want to be fresh and ready for anything tomorrow.” Thunder said, defeating simulation again.

“Yeah, I still want Varl for myself.” Lillian picked Thunder up sheathing her sword for the final time.

Lillian switched the landscape to a grassy plane with a checkered blanket she pulled Thunder down with her as they laid together her white paw intertwined with his black paw. They stared into each other’s eyes. The moon shined brightly over them. They started kissing fireworks going off in each other’s mind as they made out. They both wanted to say so much to each other but their minds opened instead, communicating everything that they wanted to say and more. 

“Lily, Thundy what! It's time to wake up.” Orion’s voice quickly aroused them. 

“Is morning already?” Lillian yawned. She was still tired from last night.

“Just a few more minutes babe.” Thunder rolled back over. 

Lillian hopped on Thunder. “Come on we need to eat and get ready no telling when they will show up.” She said shaking him up and down.

“Wow you sure are fired up.” Orion said as he prepared some food over the flame.

“Yeah we spent all night going over a plan and I am confident in our chances.” Lillian brought some kindling over to the fire feeding it. “No way that they would lose today.” She was ready to take on The Children. Her body felt light as she went through her morning stretches. 

“But we do need to air on the side of caution though.” Thunder said flipping off of the stone floor. 

Thunder put on his armor and placed the sword sheath in it’s natural spot. Lililian pulled the energy core out and transferred energy into it, charging it to its full capacity. They placed it back. They were locked and loaded. .

“You guys be careful please.” 

“We will-”

“Of course, what did you say we were like Thunder superheroes.” Lillian said, cutting Thunder off.

“Okay we have approximately three hours so you better make it count.” Orion said, checking some type of tablet device. “The Guild will be here in a couple of hours.” 

“They are coming, we need to move.” Thunder said.

“Let us get a move on then.” Lillian paced while fueling up. She went over the plan in her head. She visualized how she would take down The Children of The Light. All they had to do was execute the plan. She scarfed down the rest of their “breakfast” and she grabbed both of her boyfriends’ paws and tugged them back towards the entrance. She launched into the air dragging them up with her. 

“You two be careful and I mean it.” Orion said hopping on the horse that Thunder had brought. I’ll be around but out of danger come home.” He bent down and kissed Thunder. Then kissed Lillian. 

“we will,” Lillian touched her forehead to her new partner. She was ready to take down The Children of Light no matter the cost. To protect her boyfriends. 

“Alright wrap it up Liliy we gotta go and lead them away from Orion.” Thunder said. 

“Alright,” she yelled to Thunder. “Be safe okay.” Lillian rubbed Orion’s Galaxy mane. 

She took to the air in the same direction that Thunder was running. She grabbed his paws lifting him into the air. 

“I'm ready to go babe. I am so excited to actually do some bounty hunting.” Lillian gushed as they approached where The Children of Light were waiting. 

“Yeah before you get too ahead of yourself remember they want us because of what’s flowing in us and last I checked we weren’t invincible so we have to air on the side of caution.” Thunder. 

Even though Thunder tried to slow her down, it did not put a damper on her energy, she wanted the fight to begin so badly. Lillian could see her putting the cuffs around Varl’s wrist and finally getting her revenge. 

They stopped in front of the mini army no more than 15 foxes. She Immediately pulled the energy rifle off her back and pointed it at foxes, she let Thunder skills take over, something about them transferring bodies had left some of his skills behind. 

“Come on Alastor working with these two is beneath you.” Thunder said. 

“No dog we all want something from the two of you.” Gus said he was the only one riding a horse . He looked like he could barely fit in the brown looking leather armor that they all wore. 

His eyes darted to Lillian, she just bared her teeth at him, he quickly looked away. She would work with Thunder to capture him first. Her eyes kept locked on with the human at the back 

“Lillian you should work with us, we are trying to change the world for the better.” Varl said getting close enough so that she could hear him. She felt her anger rising, of course he would try to play the saviour who could do no wrong.

“Yeah you should have said something sooner, you made me out for a fool and you will pay for that.” Lillian growled. She aimed the rifle at Varl, right between his eyes. “You can’t stop me this time.”

“Lillian, no, our true target is already fleeing. Thunder shouted. She almost forgot that the fight had started.

She looked back at where Gus was supposed to be and sure enough Gus’ white horse was high stepping it through the snow towards the trees.

She looked back at Varl, he was already climbing through the air and a safe distance away from her. She cursed under her breath any more mistakes they could escape or they could capture the two of them. Her jaw started to hurt from clenching it. She relaxed her face. All she had was to refocus herself, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. 

“Alright on my way.” Lillian called back. She took off quickly, knowing that the foxes would try to take her down. they were counting on them focusing their fire on her. She, ducked, dodged and rolled past the bolts that were whizzing through the air. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she leaned away from a bolt that came inches from her wings. She looked down to see if she could find her boyfriend. 

She caught sight of him, pain erupted into her ankle. She felt something start to tug her down. She looked down and she saw a black mass quickly take care of the fox that was tugging her down. The pain was still too much for her to bear. Tears in her eyes, god what would she be going to do, no way that she could continue. She felt her vision going dark. “Thunder help.” she moaned.

_ Block out the pain, focus on catching Gus you're almost there. You just have to dig deeper.” _

She squeezed her eyes shut. She opened her wings stopping her descent into the snow. Her ankle was burning but it wasn’t as bad as it felt when it happened. She dove between the trees to where Gus was hiding. Lilian knew that stench anywhere. 

She landed a little ways off. She leaned against a tree bringing out the cuffs that Thunder let her borrow. Gus’ pudgy body was bent down drinking water from a still pond. The very sight of him made her hot. The last time she saw him he had the audacity to threaten her. And he was going to pay for that. She could see it now, him actually in prison and suffering. 

“I wouldn’t drink that.” Lillian called as she hobbled towards him pointing. 

“Oh Lily you found me.” He threw up his hand in defeat. As she moved towards him. His eyes looked at his horse. He started to roll which was like watching someone churn butter. Lillian shot next to his head at his new location.

“Don’t do anything dumb,” Lillian started to apporch him agian. “I won’t miss next time.” 

“Come on girl. Let me go and I’ll make you my right hand ma’am.” 

“Not in this lifetime.” She turned him around. “Now put your hand behind your back.”

“I can pay-”

“That’s enough.” Lillian cut him off grabbing him by the scruff of his armor and took back to the air. “Don’t squirm or I will drop you.” 

She smirked as he went limp in her grasp maybe she did have a life for this. 

_ Bagged and tagged.  _ Lillian thought at Thunder. She flew with a little more air under herself. She just needed to get back and help Thunder catch the other two. She closed the wound in her ankle. She knew that they could capture the other two with ease. 

  
  


***

After taking down another one of Alastor’s foxes Thunder scented the air for that familiar oily smell. He caught wind of it coming from behind. He turned around and quickly pushed down. He felt a warm furry body pinning him to the ground. He struggled to get Alastor off of him but to no avail. Thunder wanted to know what they fed him because nothing he did worked. The wolf’s teeth started to bite down on his forearm. The stench of the wolf’s breath made him turn his face. Thunder looked around for a way to get Alastor off of him. He didn’t see anything. Then a light went off in his head, almost forgetting his new move.

  
  


He focused enough energy into his paw to send the wolf flying. Thunder got up panting he shook his head. He needed to help Lillian but right now with this wolf on him like this he wouldn’t have the chance. 

“Come on Alastor we are better than this.” Thunder said as he sheathed his sword.

The wolf growled in response. 

He wished the wolf would stop and listen, no telling if he could talk but he knew that he would be delayed longer, he looked for any escape route, he knew any route that he wanted to take would lead to the wolf leaping on him. They locked eyes, Alastor sprinted at him.

Thunder laughed to himself,  _ typical.  _ He thought. He got low and threw the grey wolf over his shoulder. Thunder bent over, he was a lot Heavier than he looked

His ankle erupted in pain. He looked down and saw nothing, no wound, no blood. He looked up to the cloudy sky and saw a long rope attached to Lillian. He started breathing hard. He sprinted to where the rope was connected to on the ground. They would pay, he stabbed the fox before they realized what happened. He picked up the crossbow and retracted the rope. 

He felt his right shoulder get crunched on as he threw the crossbow down. Alastor growled in his ear as he bit through the armor and broke through his skin. Thunder winced as he tried to shake the wolf off. The rest of the foxes that he didn’t take down began to surround the front of him. He looked around for something to press the wolf against. Just the white snow around him. 

He bit his lip and it was increasingly looking like he wasn’t going to get out of this situation at the moment. He felt the wolf teeth burrow deeper. Thunder was taking slow shallow breaths as he started to fall down, he knew it was over as he looked at all the foxes closing in on him. 

He closed his eyes.  _ It’s over for me Lilly, get out of here.  _ Thunder thought to her.

_ Give the Wolf a strong blast. It should knock him off and I’ll take care of the foxes.  _

_ Alright.  _ He shook his head; he would have never guessed that Lillian would be the one keeping his head up. He found the inner strength and gathered the last bit of his energy and released it. 

Alastor went crashing into the snow. He opened his eyes to see Lillian put the foxes down. He groaned as he moved his left shoulder. He was hoping that Alastor didn’t have rabies or anything infectious. He bent down to the wolf. 

“You chose wrong.” Thunder said. 

Before he could continue his speech the wolf headbutted him and took off in the opposite direction. Thunder landed on his butt and rubbed his muzzle. Maybe he should start locking up his bounties before the speech. 

“Should I go after him?” Lillian asked, helping Thunder up. 

He just put his paw up shaking it. He was in too much pain to respond. He felt a headache starting to come to life. He got up then immediately got dizzy. 

“I’ll watch Gus go get Varl.” Thunder shook his head as he went over to where Lillian threw Gus down. He would have to track Alastor back down; he couldn’t let him get away. His work was never done.

***

Lillian took back to the air. She knew what she had to do, find Varl and finish this once and for all. She opened her mouth and searched for the sweet dragon scent. It went streaking through the air and into clouds. She chased the smell, if she knew anything about this dragon he wouldn’t run if it meant losing her. They were the only anthropomorphic dragons that lived with the rest of the dragons and were friends. 

Her eyes rested on the red drake who looked like he just lost a fight with himself. Her eyes softened for a second, then rehardened she knew what he was a liar and a fake. 

“Hey Lillian,” He put some distance between the two of them. “I’m sorry for what I did.”

“Sorry won’t cut it this time. I am done sticking my neck out for you.” 

“I can’t go back, they will kill me especially for what I did.”

“Tough luck, you can’t cry your way out of this and I won’t help either.”

“Well I am sorry for this.” He pulled a rifle from behind his back and fired it at her. 

She took the blow to her chest, the blue energy surrounded her powering her up even more. He just stared on. She smirked.

“One small problem Varl. I absorb energy, it can’t harm me and neither can you.” 

“O-oh, I have to be on my way then.” Varl stammered as he started to fly backwards away from her. 

“Don’t do it.” Lillian sighed, starting to follow. She didn’t want to chase him. She just wanted this to end with no pain or bloodshed but it wasn’t up to her.

She watched as the red drake dove down through the clouds. She quickly followed, he wasn't a good flyer and she would prove it. Her brows furrowed as they were met by blankets of snow and trees. She watched as he flew away. She realized the route that he was flying. 

_ Come on you can do it.  _ She muttered to herself as she gained altitude hiding in the grey clouds. Her plan hinged on him flying back home and he altered course, she would be screwed. She flapped her wings as hard as she could, feeling herself speed through the grey clouds.Lillian pushed any doubt that she had even though all she could see was the grey clouds surrounding her. She ignored the drops of rain that pelted her face. 

She dove down when it felt like she was over him. She didn’t have time to worry if she under or over shot Varl. As she broke through the clouds she stretched out her arms. Lillian saw a red blur under her. She could have screamed but she was too busy dragging them both down to the ground. She couldn’t really tell which way was up or down as they spiralled down.

As she brought them down she told Thunder where she was. The soft snow was steadily getting closer as she fought against the drake’s struggling. Lillian felt tired but not necessarily because she wanted to sleep but she did everything that she needed too. 

As they slammed into the snow her ribs lit up in pain. She crawled over and sat on Varl’s chest while pinning his arm above his head and wings to the ground. 

“I trusted you.” Was all she said. 

He turned his face away from her. She saw what looked like a tear.

“And now you are crying, I should be crying for everything you have put me through.” Lillian growled. Every breath she took she felt a sharp pain from her ribs. 

“I am sorry Lillian, I didn’t think-”

“Yeah you didn’t think.”

_ We’ll be picking you up just wait where you are.  _ Thunder's voice came into her thoughts. 

“Turn over they’ll be here soon and they are going to shoot you if you run.” Lillian said standing a little hunched over as she pressed her paw to her ribs.

She stood Varl up. Lillian's eyes went wide as a silver and black air borne craft softly glided down and parked in front of her. It looked like a metal dragon. 

“Bet you’ve never seen something this huh?” Thunder asked.

“No, has this always been a thing?” Lillian felt on the soft metal that she thought was going to be rough. Someone of the same species as Orion collected Varl pushing him back onto the ship. 

Thunder stuck his paw out. “Come with me.” 

As she took it he started to pull her in but they both didn’t account for her being taller than the ship and she bumped her head with a resounding thud.

“Smooth.” She laughed, rubbing her muzzle. The inside was nice with a couple of chairs that were occupied by jungle lions. A few windows looking towards the outside. Thunder kept leading her towards the back and through a door. 

It was a white room with a couch and bed though she had never seen those two so large in her life. 

“Woah you guys live like this?” Lillian asked, spinning around. 

“Yeah,” Orion came from another room with just a towel on his galaxy mane was poofed up and he was still kinda wet from what she was guessing was the shower. “Good job on the captures. I know you did most of the work.”

She just smiled, it felt good to do something good. She found people that actually cared about her. 

  
  



	13. Chapter 13

Thunder almost forgot that it was still super cold on the complex and that the last little bit of sun they got was at the beginning of the trip. Nobody was there to congratulate them. They just got off the ship into the empty air hanger no better than a metal shed. 

“Nobody wanted to see us or make sure that we are okay.” Thunder muttered into Orion's ear.

“Yeah, we need to get you two to a doctor.” Orion whispered back. 

Thunder looked back at Lillian whose eyes were wide looking around. It looked like she was afraid to blink or it would all disappear.

“Yeah she looks a little overwhelmed, maybe this wasn’t the greatest idea.” Thunder said as they exited the air hanger. 

“You okay Lillian?” Thunder asked as he led them to an empty jeep. 

“What doesn’t the other sector know about these things?” 

“That’s a history lesson that I can teach you one day,”Thunder said getting into the front seat. “ But for now it was something that happened centuries ago when naturalists and innovators had a falling out when extraterrestrials came and assisted with innovation accelerating us through different eras of living and completely skipping some. “ 

Thunder hoped that something stuck because she didn’t ask any more questions. He pulled the white jeep onto the black road. Orion put his hand on his thigh as he allowed the car to drive itself. 

“Well the spring festival starts in a few days, guess you have to attend.” Thunder said, keeping his eyes on the road, he did not trust the self-driving vehicles. Snow blanketed both sides of the road.

“Yeah, though I think this my last time doing so.”

  
  


Thunder just raised his eyebrows in response. Maybe his boyfriend was going to challenge them for a seat at the table. Even though he was a prince he wasn’t next in line for the throne. 

“I want to do something different than work for them especially since I won’t be a King anytime soon if ever.”

“Maybe we can do our own bounty hunting guild, if you guys have guilds here.” Lillian chimed in. 

“Not a bad idea, though we would need the money and resources for it.”

Well my parents do have a vault of jewels that I may or may not have access to.”

“This could get us into serious trouble.” Orion said.

He was considering it but he didn’t want to put his ⅔’s in danger. And the very thought of losing his closest friend and new girlfriend made him shiver internally. It would be foolish to throw everything that he had away.

“Yeah, nobody really cares about us.” Orion continued, sounding like he was believing in the plan. “And you don’t really care for my parents. 

“Yeah but don’t want to end up in prison.” Thunder said, shaking his head. “Remember when you tried to buy your own jet doing the same thing and your parents knew what we were planning.”

“If I may,” Lillian didn’t wait for a response. “What if I took the jewels.”

“Absolutely not.” Both Orion and Thunder said at the same time.

“Fine, I’ll do it.” Thunder sighed. “ We need to create a distraction for as long as possible, I guess we are really doing this.” 

Orion’s parents scared Thunder because of how cold they could be, especially towards Orion. If he got caught he would just say it was his plan and that would be that in the meantime he would try to change Orion’s mind by being as honest as he could. 

Once they got to the medical building Thunder had no success changing his partner's mind they actually changed his mind a bit.

He growled when the doctor stitched his wound closed and looked up at the sterile white light above him. Once the doctor was done Thunder placed his black and blue striped uniform top back on. 

“I wanted to talk to you about your blood.” The grey jungle lion said sitting back at his desk. 

“Did Alastor give me something?” Thunder asked.

“No, I think that something is taking over your DNA and rewriting everything.” He saw the confusion on Thunder's face so he continued. “It doesn’t look deadly and medicine can’t do anything to help but we will keep a strand of your DNA for research.” 

He handed Thunder a piece of paper. “That’s my number, keep me updated if anything else changes.

_ We might have a problem.  _ Thunder thought to Lillian rushing the hallways.

_ What happened?  _ She thought back. 

_ Something is changing in me and the doc doesn’t know what. Meet me on the second floor lounge. _ He put his paws shakily on the elevator door. He looked around the empty waiting room as he sat in the backless black white chair. His thoughts were erratic; he couldn’t follow them. No way his DNA was changing. 

He almost fell out when he got off the elevator.

_ Find me.  _ Was the last thing that he thought at Lillian as he felt his vision go black. And felt himself start to fall. 

He woke up looking at a stained glass ceiling. He yawned as Lillian rubbed the tuft of fur on top of his head. 

“Hey sleepy head.” Lillian mumerred. 

“Hey,” Thunder said, pulling the covers off. “How long was I out.” He stretched his back out and then moved to his limbs. He shook his head there was a dull ache that he couldn’t quite shake. 

“The rest of yesterday till early afternoon.” She said, throwing him his uniform. “You know for a canine you move very cat-like.” 

The sun broke through the stained ceiling giving them an early morning light show. Thunder could cuddle under the lights. But unfortunately they couldn’t afford to cuddle the way away. Thunder stepped off the bed and into his clothes.

“Where is Orion?” Thunder asked shimming into his pants. “Hey can you button up my tail button?”

“Uh he said something about practicing for the spring festivals.” Lillian walked behind him pushing his tail down. “they are planning on honoring me, wow your tail is bushy.” 

Thunder had to really concentrate on not wagging his tail, it always betrayed him. “I’m happy and that works perfectly. All I have to do is break into the vault while he’s giving a speech.

“He said you’d come to that conclusion. He’s working on securing an escape vehicle.” Lillian said as she finished buttoning him up.

“Well I guess I can show you around until he is ready for us.” He turned to her and he was glad that his fur was black because she looked beautiful in the all black version of the uniform and the short sleeve shirt really showed off her muscles. 

“ Sorry they said that they didn’t make shirts for people so bulky and with wings so I had to design mine myself.” She turned around and wings spilled out of the open back of her shirt. 

“It’s no problem.” Thunder muttered as he grabbed for her white paw. Taking her from Orion’s room.

“So you two have been dating for only a year.” Lillian said.

“Yeah, I honestly thought I would never date but.”

“Now you have two partners that you are madly in love with.” Lillian snickered. 

“Anyway have they given you a phone yet?” Thunder said, trying to change the topic. 

“Yeah… wait a second does the usually confident Thunder not want to talk about dating.”

“N-no it’s not that.” Thunder stammered.

“Then what?”

“It’s hard for me to love and I’m still getting used to being loved, it's hard for me.” Thunder confessed. 

“Huh interesting, parents?”

“Kind of.” Thunder said putting his head down. It was silly but even thinking about his parents made him shameful, he tried to shake them out of his head but, he was back in the woods outside of a camp, his parents sent him to make sure nobody was there and he walked into a trap cutting his face and body up resurfaced and then his parents not taking care of his wounds or helping him out of the said trap. 

His eyes opened back to them in the grand hall. Lillian grabbed his shoulder shaking him. 

“Hey let’s keep going I’m sorry for pressuring you.”

“No you are fine, you just reminded me why I work so hard.” Thunder said, taking her paw. Nobody would save him except for himself and the people that loved him. 

He led them out of the large castle-like building and into the fresh snow melt. Thunder thought it was a bit much but he wasn’t going to complain about it because the other living quarters weren’t anything to write home about. The thought about practically living on top of the other bounty hunters sent shivers down his spine. 

The sun had finally shown itself for the first time on this side of the sector for the year. For as long as Thunder could remember there was only the cold long winter and then summer for months sometimes years but nothing in between. The farther inland that you headed the longer it stayed cold and the longer winter lasted. Thanks to someone’s great idea they had set up shop in smack dab in the middle of the sector.

  
  
  


“And this is where Orion and I hang out.” Thunder said wiping snow off a white moon saucer that they moved out into the snow. The sun shined down, warming him up. He wished it was like this forever, nothing but sunshine and his partners. The birds continued to chirp their songs as Thunder flopped into his chair.

“What’s with all this junk, It’s like Gus all over again.” Lillian said. looked around all the burnt junk that was just laying around. 

“Someone was living here Illegally and it got burnt to the ground and it's like they like they say another man’s junk is another man's treasure.” Thunder flipped open a burnt refrigerator. “Water, juice, liquor?” 

Thunder and Orion were always exploring the base when they were much younger and finding nooks and crannies around the base where they couldn’t be found; they still had multiple spots that they had things stored and hidden.

“Water.” She brushed off the other chair with her tail before sitting down. He sat on a Hololens and opened to the news catching up on everything since he had been gone.

“Is this the news.” she looked around for where the image was produced. 

“Yeah looks like a whole bunch of nothing though.” Thunder said looking at his phone. He texted Orion where they were. He kept his ears open; he believed that there was no such thing as being too cautious. 

“So what does this mean for Orion if we manage to pull this off?” Lillian asked.

“Well if all goes well he gets excommunicated and hopefully we get far enough away so that they can’t track us. Worse case is they put a bounty on our capture and have ¾ of the Valor looking for us.” Thunder said putting a movie on. 

As they watched Thunder's favorite action movie. Thunder more so watched Lillian as her eyes lit up with every scene, the excitement on her face as she watched the main character take on multiple foes. Thunder knew this movie like the back of his hand, he didn’t actually have to watch it. 

“Thunder showing you his favorite movie I see.” Orion said kissing Lillian on the cheek. 

Thunder smiled at his boyfriend entering on the side. He still had his Prince attire on. It was a beautiful white blouse that slimed his waist. with the small blue  bolero that covered his arms then a cape that covered his shoulders, then it transitioned down to a double skirt the inside skirt was white and the outside skirt was blue that had gold markings on it.

“Yeah, I can’t believe that they actually kill people for these movies.” Lillian said.

Thunder and Orion laughed. Thunder couldn’t believe how pure that sounded. Thunder pulled Orion into his lap as he gently kissed him on the neck. 

“No sweetie they are just acting most of this is just fake blood and visual effects nothing about this is real.“ Orion said getting comfortable on Thunder’s lap. 

Thunder ran his paw through Orion’s mane as he thought about the task at hand. They would need this to work if they wanted their freedom.

“It will work hun, no need to think about it we are more than capable of pulling this off we just need to relax for the day.” Orion said. 

Thunder felt Orion’s soft paw rubbing his cheek. Maybe he was thinking about it too hard. They have pulled other things off before.

“Yeah, this will be like the time that we went to space in your dad’s ship.” Thunder laughed. 

“Just like that, they still don’t know what happened that day.” Orion smiled at him. 

Times like this he felt like the luckiest guy in the universe to be loved by this sweet jungle lion and dragon roo.  _ I have to keep us together no matter what. _ Thunder thought as he settled back to continue watching the movie with them.

  
  



	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bringing the story to its end

Lillian smoothed over her dress that seemed a little too revealing for her liking. It was a blue silk dress that had the gold Vanguard’s crest on its sleeves. She fiddled with her white tights that she wore under the dress. This was the second time that she had worn a dress and she missed her other clothes. But if she was going to meet the King and Queen and specifically Orion’s parents than she had better look the part. Lillian checked her phone. She wasn’t quite used to using a phone but it was cool that she could search anything that she wanted to know and it would tell her. She checked her tabs and she was at 70 tabs. But she had most of her questions answered. 

“What is this notification?” Lillian asked, showing her phone to Thunder.

They were eating breakfast in Orion’s room on his bed. Electing to have breakfast in bed.

“Oh this is an Ad just ignore it.” Thunder said he sounded distant and not really there. She wasn’t sure if it was because they were planning on stealing from the Queen, or because of the troubling news that he received at the doctor’s office. Lillian was worried. She knew that he liked to handle things on his own. She placed her paw over his. 

“Okay Orion so what’s the plan?” Lillian asked, taking another swig of orange juice. 

“Well our part is easy. At midday we met with my parents and the people of Shadow Retreat and we will welcome Spring and party for a bit then we will escape on my dad’s old ship. It still has stealth capabilities and since it's so old no one will be able to trace it...Hopefully. And this is where Thunder comes in, since everyone will be at the gathering and the place will be mostly empty you’ll be able to sleep right over here.” Orion paused highlighting a secret entrance. “Then you will say Glory to the Vanguard and you will want to take the jewels, treasures, artifacts, anything that you get your paws on, you will only have a few minutes before they are tipped off.” 

“And what if the doors don’t open?” Thunder asked. His words were flat. Lillian had not seen Thunder this serious since the first time they met. He had on a pure black cloak that hid his body and what also felt like he was hiding hismind. 

“Well let’s not hope it doesn’t come to that, but we are still leaving. I can’t stay here” Orion said. 

“Well I guess this plan is as good as it’s going to get.” Thunder pulled up his hood cloaking his face and muzzle and left the room. 

“Should I get him?” Lillian asked her heart pounding. “I think that we just put this off until later. I don’t think it will work without him.” 

“It’s fine Lil he gets like this when it's mission time. He does not like to mess around before the mission. He will do what he has to do to complete the mission and we just have to keep up our end of the mission.” He kissed Lillian on the forehead. “Come on, let's take a walk.” 

He got up from the bed. He looked stunning in his prince uniform. She took his paw as they exited his room for probably the last time. Even though Orion told her not to worry about Thunder, her thoughts instantly went back to her twin flame. She reached out her mind towards him, she traveled through his barbed wire and connected with him. 

_ Are you going to be okay babe?  _ Lillian thought at the black wolf. She just had to make sure he was okay.

_ Yeah, I’m going to be fine, this is very serious to me and I want to make sure everything goes according to plan. So I am currently filling up on energy just in case. Enjoy your time with Orion. I love you and will check on you later.  _ With that Thunder had forced her out.

“He’s okay.” was all she said she was still worried but she would let it go since there wasn’t much she could do at the moment.

Orion had taken her to a side of the little town that she had never seen. It wasn’t like the bounty hunter side of the city, it had more little shops, larger buildings, more things that Lillian could ogole at and more things covered in gold more fitting of a capital. 

“So what's this place's deal?” Lillian asked. It wasn’t too much different from some of the other towns from the sector that she was from things were just more shiny, more white. But the same style of buildings.

“Well we didn’t want to advance too fast and how things are now work better than some other futuristic cities that we’ve visited.” Orion explained. 

Thinking about Valor’s history made her head spin. Thinking this planet made her head spin. She always knew that there was more to the world then everyone let on but phones and planes and spacecrafts just blew her mind. She must have looked stressed out because Orion shot her a worried look. 

“Sorry just the idea of the world I knew is gone and replaced with something alien.” Lillian said looking into a clothing shop. 

“The old world isn’t gone, it's just different. Let me show you, we have some time to look around the city. Plus you can buy whatever you want.” Orion said, wrapping his paw under her arm dragging her towards the store. 

“Wow I can’t believe that they make shops this big.” It was a large white room that had different styles of clothing for every occasion. “This puts any article of clothing that I own to shame.

“Well you make anything you wear beautiful..” Orion handed a black backless dress with sleeves. 

“But dresses aren’t my thing.“ Lillian said handing him back the dress she didn’t mean to be mean but she couldn’t stand another dress. 

“Sorry, my  antediluvian way of thinking has rotted my brain a bit.” Orion put his paws up. “Let’s try this, I saw how you were looking at Thunders cloak.” They had moved over to another section. That had a sign that read heroes of the past. “What is my girlfriend’s favorite color?” 

She had to ponder this question, she had never thought about her favorite color since her childhood, everything after that was worn because it was functional. She put her white paw under her kangaroo-like face. She remembered that she wore a lot of lavender dresses and white clothing but grey was what she liked wearing the most. “Lavender or Grey.” she finally responded, taking some time to think about her options. 

“Great okay go in the changing room and I’ll have them bring in some outfits to try on.” Orion said taking off before Lillian had a chance to say anything. She just shook her head. Thunder and Orion were always just running off and doing things. She walked in to the metal boxed room that was the changing room. She sat on the bench waiting for Orion to show up with clothes. A box was slid under the bottom of the stall. Lillian picked it up. It had a grey cloak with a purple long sleeve shirt. When she tried on the long sleeve shirt it compressed to her body it had fabric on its back but it moved out the way once her wings pushed through. Then when she put on the cloak the back pushed back as well. She came out and Orion and another Jungle Lion with a lion like fur coloring were staring at her.

“What, do I have something on my face?” Lillian was feeling kind of flush.

“No it looks fabulous on you.” Orion said as he came around her. “Let me do the finishing touches and..done.” She felt him pin the cloak around her wings. It was snug for the first time something felt tight against her and not suffocating.

“How did you do it?” She asked turned around in the mirror watching her tail stalk around her. Lillian opened her wings and the fabric responded. “I think I saw some other clothes If that’s fine babe?” Lillian said checking herself for the last time. She wanted more clothes that fit her and that weren’t something that she cut herself.

***

Thunder walked next to another energy cell draining as he went by. Hopefully one of them powered down the main castle, he looked up and the lights were still on. It was worth a shot. He was still mad at himself for letting his partners see him so upset. He pushed that thought away; he didn’t need any distractions; he checked the live stream and saw that the King and Queen walked out waving.  _ This is going to be good.  _ He thought as he leaned against the recently drained energy cell. They began a whole speech on how spring had come and Thunder wasn’t too interested in hearing the rest. 

_ I am starting the mission, be ready to go. _ Thunder thought at Lillian as he put the hood up for his cloak. 

He looked around and the halls were empty, he guessed that meant that he would have no problems. He shrugged the faster it was over the faster he could start a new life with his loves. He entered Orion’s parents' part of the castle. The smell of perfume and vaporized smoke permeated the air. I sent him back when Orion dragged him into that part of the castle and told his parents that they were dating. His dad accepted it but his mom wanted him to at least pick someone of the same species as them. She thought it was embarrassing that he was dating a refugee. Thunder snickered to himself seeing the white Jungle lion face when she realized her son was dating a wolf. 

He made a left, there wasn’t a portrait, he must have made a wrong turn he sighed, sometimes directions got a bit fuzzy in his mind. As he was entering back into the Hall he saw one of the royal guards he quickly hid behind a marble column as he watched the heavy armored guard head the way he was supposed to go. Thunder grabbed a stun baton off of his hip. 

_ I’m pushing up the time we have ten minutes now.  _ He thought at his girlfriend. He slid towards the guard and pressed the baton against the guards back furred neck the guard slummed to the ground he looked for a security card but he came up empty handed. He continued on his path and glanced to make sure that the body was still laying which it was. The two portraits were looking at him, the blue and grey Jungle Lion with a large mane and an all white Jungle Lion were sitting on their respective thrones. Orion’s Parents loved to show off how royal they were the city was littered with their posters and every thing that did had their names attached no good deed without knowing that they had a hand to play.  _ Well they won’t know about this good deed.  _ Thunder chuckled. He spoke the name and nothing happened. 

_ Alright the door didn’t open.  _ Thunder thought at Lillian. He was going to plan C. 

_ Alright I guess we are making a quick escape.  _ Lilian thought back. 

Thunder pressed his paws against Orion’s Mom’s portrait and moved all of the new energy into his paws as he transferred it the hinges blew off with a Thunderous bang. He would have less time than he thought. 

Orion wasn’t lying when he said that it was a treasure room. Gold, platinum and red amber shined all throughout the room. He pulled out a black bag and began stuffing items into his bag focusing on crowns and anything that looked rare. He saw a completely diamond out jungle lion he didn’t know if he wanted to sell it or keep it as he shoved it into his bag. 

_ What did you do? The whole Vanguard is running to the palace. Just come outside, we are out front.  _

Whoops he must have set off of an alarm when busted down the vault door. As he was making his way to the entrance he saw the guard starting to stir. Well at least he wasn’t a murderer. The bag was getting heavier as the seconds went by. Using that much energy at once was taxing. He rushed outside, the little crescent moon ship was waiting for them and he heard the sound of cars coming. He rushed up the ramp into the cockpit. 

Thunder threw his bag on the seat behind him and got into the pilot chair they needed to take off now. He fumbled with some of the buttons it had been awhile since he piloted an aircraft. Some of the buttons looked forigen

He felt it hum to life. “Well this is going to be interesting. Thunder said as he put into hover mode. 

“Come on stop playing we don’t have time.” Orion said as he strapped into his seat, he looked slightly on edge,

“I wish that I was kidding but it's been a while.” Thunder said as he shakily brought the ship into the air. Flying was one of those things that he enjoyed but never did enough of. He put his paws out and blue orbs encased them giving him full control of the ship. He just needed time. It was like riding a bike but he was remembering slowly. He felt a bit queasy their safety was in his paws. 

“Uh babes, we need to hurry, aircrafts are coming our way and they have cannons on them.” Lillian said looking out the window. “Need me to do anything?”

“Just sit back and relax.” Thunder smiled at Lillian. “How’s the cloaking going?” Thunder asked Orion, if this truly was a royal aircraft then that meant it didn’t have any guns on it and they couldn’t defend themselves. He leaned his paws forward and the aircraft responded, the gears were grinding under him. Thunder was seriously questioning them surviving. This is why he didn’t want to rush the plan if it wasn’t going to work. 

“I’m working on it, this has not been updated in some years, just keep them off of us.” Orion said as he worked on the panel in front of Thunder. They were losing 

That was easier said than done. The other ships had caught up to them. Thunder was glad this ship was nimble so dodging energy blasts was easy as he kept climbing into the air using the clouds as cover. A loud beeping came on as ducked under another shark shaped aircraft. “Everyone hold on.” Thunder shouted he knew what the noise meant. He looked down at the armrest to see what buttons he could use, he noticed a fireworks button perfect. He leaned his paws down, he heard the ship roar under him shaking off that previous rust. The ship lightly shook as fireworks blasted around them their shields had already been compromised from them getting rocked by energy blasts; Thunder watched the fireworks display. It was the most beautiful thing that he had seen in a while.

“I guess we are reigning in spring.” Orion giggled, Thunder could hear the tenison leaving the jungle Lion voice. He was glad that his boyfriend was feeling better but they weren’t out of the woods yet.

“Yes now if we could disappear that would be great I’m sure that your parents will figure out that it was us that robbed them.” He didn’t want to be a sickler but if they didn’t cloak now he didn’t know how long they would be to survive with no weapons.

“Any second now we should be calibrated.” Orion said, replacing the panel. Thunder glanced down and pressed the cloaking button. Hopefully it worked but Thunder wasn’t taking any chances as he cruised underneath one of the jet styled aircrafts. 

“So where to next?” Lillian was the first to break the silence. Thunder finally took a breath as the ships started to fall back. Well it looked like their little trick had worked. 

“To a trading post then whatever we want to do next.” Thunder said Orion punched in the coordinates to a black market trading post. 

“I guess working under cover has its perks.” Orion said he strapped himself in the chair next to Thunder. 

“Yeah hopefully Betsy is still there.” Thunder thought about the old she badger looked as tough as rusty nails but sweeter than a bottle of honey. 

“I guess I should change then. I need to look menacing, not like the next princess.” Lillian stood up and immediately bumped her head. Thunder and Orion both snickered. 

“Are you okay hun?” Thunder managed to squeeze out. If they built a base he would need to have a tall ceiling.

“Fine.” Lillian started to strip showing off her deep purple stripes on her ribs. Her soft lavender scales turned to a milky white as they approached her midsection and ins-

“Babe watch where you are flying.” Orion tapped his leg, he looked up and saw that they were leaning off course. 

“Yeah, sorry about that I got a bit distracted.” Thunder said sheepishly. God his partners were beautiful. One a prince and one that should be considered a princess

After a couple of hours of flying and a wardrobe change later they were in a dustier part of the country. “Alright we should be arriving soon. Put your game faces on no telling if our old friend is here.” Thunder said bringing down the ship in the disengaged area. Out of the frying pan and into the fire Thunder took a deep breath as he got off the ship the ground was covered in dirt and he hadn’t quite shedded his winter coat yet so the hot air on his fur started making him sweat, the buildings looked as though they were only being held up by sheer will, most of the building where made from random pieces of metal that they could find. Everyone looked hardened and angry, even the kids.

“Watch out for the kids, they are the ones who will steal from you.” Thunder said to Lillian who was soaking in the sights of the city.

***

Lillian knew that Thunder meant well but she wasn’t completely helpless fawn when he came into her life. She watched his back making sure no one could sneak up on them. Every side eye they got she returned back making sure her fangs were exposed. She knew trading towns like the back of her hand. Most likely they were looking for the head trader because they didn’t know any better. She sniffed the air, something smelled foul and the stillness of everything bothered her but she would wait. As they walked in it was super clean like the outside looked nothing like the inside the white tile floors seemed to glow and the air was setirle of any smell. They was an old badger with an eye patch and a long scar to go with it sitting on the couch smiling at them. 

“Well if it isn’t Freddy and Tj.” The badger sounded like she chain smoked. Well she could guess who was who, god there so dumb yet that’s the exact reason why she loved them.

“Hey Besty, we need a favor. We got some items that we would like to get rid of.” Orion spoke first.

“Oh and who is your lady friend. Your bodyguard?” She started laughing which turned into a coughing fit.

“Actually I am.” Lillian said standing at her full height she was going to be respected. 

“Oh boy where were you when they tore up the city trying to take down a black bear. Man you should have seen their faces when Eddie threw them out the building.” This led to her laughing again. 

They both looked away which made her start laughing as well, they probably needed some like her. 

“But anyway I know that’s not why you are here. Let’s go to my office and speak business. She led them to a tiny office, The badger was growing on her.

“So whatcha got for momma.” Besty brought out some tools. It reminded Lillian of what she used to check on the carbon that she got from Varl. Even thinking his name frustrated her he played her like an instrument and she blindly followed along. She shook her head, she wouldn't follow anyone anymore.

“Wow who did you steal these from.” She was looking at the diamond encrusted Jungle Lion. “You guys are about to be rich, I am going to need a 10 percent cut if you want this fast.” 

“How about a 5 percent cut and we cut you in on any other artifacts that we come across.” Lillian cut in before they agreed. 

“Oh and your body guard can barter. I like her, okay how about you help me move your items and you have a deal. Beautiful and smart I can use someone like that on my side.” 

“You have a deal.” Lillian stuck out her paw and they shook on it. She was flattered that somebody understood her.

They had discussed what would happen. They would stay in the city and she would go with Besty. There was even the chance of going to space. She was excited about the chance to write her own destiny with her loves. And the future looked promising. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading it been a long journey for the crew and for myself hopefully you have enjoyed the story so far. this won't be the last time you see them.


End file.
